“We all got problems. But there’s a great book out called “Too Soon Old, Too Late Smart.” Did you see that? That book says the statute of limitations has expired on all childhood traumas. Get your stuff together and get on with your life, man. Stop whinin’ about what’s wrong, because everybody’s had a rough time, in one way or another.”
"Scientists Discover A Link Between Solar Activity And Earthquakes,
And That Has Huge Implications For The Apocalyptic Times We Are Living In"
by Michael Snyder
"Shocking new research indicates that the level of activity on the Sun has a direct impact on the level of seismic activity here on Earth. That is really bad news for us, because the giant ball of fire that our planet revolves around has become very erratic in recent years. According to NASA, approximately 1.3 million Earths could fit inside the Sun. So virtually all of the models that you have ever seen comparing the size of the Earth to the size of the Sun are way off. We are basically a tiny speck of dust compared to the Sun, and any fluctuations in solar activity have a dramatic effect on our climate. In general, during times of high solar activity global temperatures tend to go up, and during times of low solar activity temperatures tend to go down. This is something that has been well understood for a very long time, and now a team of scientists in Japan has discovered that there is also a very clear link between solar activity and seismic activity…
"Sunspots, and therefore solar activity, cause seismic activity, according to a team led by computer scientist Matheus Henrique Junqueira Saldanha of the University of Tsukuba in Japan. Their new research reveals how. “Solar heat drives atmospheric temperature changes, which in turn can affect things like rock properties and underground water movement,” Junquiera Saldanha says. “Such fluctuations can make rocks more brittle and prone to fracturing, for example – and changes in rainfall and snowmelt can alter the pressure on tectonic plate boundaries. While these factors may not be the main drivers of earthquakes, they could still be playing a role that can help to predict seismic activity.”
Needless to say, earthquakes can still happen when solar activity is very low. But the numbers that this team of researchers in Japan analyzed clearly show that there is a very strong correlation between Earth surface temperatures and seismic activity…"The research team analyzed earthquake data alongside solar activity records and surface temperatures on Earth using mathematical and computational methods. The team discovered that when they included Earth surface temperatures into their model, the forecasting became more accurate, especially for shallow earthquakes. Saldanha, a computer science PhD candidate at the University of Tsukuba, said: “That makes sense, since heat and water mostly affect the upper layers of the Earth’s crust.”
Interestingly, we have seen a tremendous amount of seismic activity within the past couple of years, and this has occurred at a time when the Sun has become extremely active. In fact, last year PBS reported that our Sun “is now in its most active period in two decades”…"To most people, the sun is a steady, never-changing source of heat and light. But to scientists, it’s a dynamic star, constantly in flux, sending energy out into space. Experts say the sun is now in its most active period in two decades, causing potential disruptions to radio and satellite communications.
Last May, which was less than a year ago, there was a “barrage of large solar flares and coronal mass ejections” which resulted in one of “the strongest displays of auroras on record in the past 500 years”…"During May 2024, a barrage of large solar flares and coronal mass ejections (CMEs) launched clouds of charged particles and magnetic fields toward Earth, creating the strongest geomagnetic storm at Earth in two decades - and possibly among the strongest displays of auroras on record in the past 500 years."
You may be tempted to think that the last quote is somewhat of an exaggeration, but the truth is that it comes straight from NASA. This is very real. Life on Earth could not exist without the giant ball of fire that we revolve around, and that giant ball of fire has begun to behave very strangely. Some experts had been hoping that our Sun would settle down a bit in 2025, but instead we continue to witness high levels of activity.
For example, near the end of last month our Sun released a very strong X2 class solar flare…"The Sun emitted a strong solar flare, peaking at 2:27 p.m. EST on Feb. 23, 2025. NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory, which watches the Sun constantly, captured an image of the event."
Solar flares are powerful bursts of energy. Flares and solar eruptions can impact radio communications, electric power grids, navigation signals, and pose risks to spacecraft and astronauts. This flare is classified as an X2 class flare. X-class denotes the most intense flares, while the number provides more information about its strength. Shortly after that solar flare was released, the state of California experienced a swarm of 7 significant earthquakes in less than 24 hours…"California has experienced seven earthquakes in less than 24 hours, with the latest striking Friday morning. The US Geological Survey (USGS) detected five quakes along the San Andreas fault that experts say is overdue for a magnitude 8.0 or higher, known as the ‘Big One.’ The initial event, a magnitude 2.7, hit Thursday off the coast of Northern California, followed by another magnitude 2.5 less than one hour later in the same region."
Within the past week, there has been a total of 814 earthquakes in California and Nevada, and a number of them have been quite noteworthy. On Sunday, a magnitude 3.9 earthquake rattled North Hollywood pretty good…"Shaking was felt across Los Angeles after a 3.9-magnitude earthquake struck the North Hollywood area on Sunday, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. The quake struck around 10:13 p.m., according to the USGS. It was reported about 1.4 miles east-southeast of North Hollywood.
Scientists tell us that it is just a matter of time before “the Big One” hits southern California. As we have been warned, when that day arrives the geography of the state will be permanently altered. We are also closely watching the Cascadia Subduction Zone. As I discussed last month, a large enough earthquake along the Cascadia Subduction Zone would have the potential to send an 80 foot tall tsunami crashing into cities and towns along the coast in the Pacific Northwest.
And let us not forget about the New Madrid fault. One of these days an absolutely cataclysmic earthquake will rip North America in half from the Great Lakes all the way down to the Gulf of Mexico. So let’s keep a very close eye on the Sun, because it may be one of the best clues that the apocalyptic disasters that I just mentioned are almost upon us.
"Santander Bank just made a shocking move that could cost you big! In this video, I break down their decision to eliminate text and email alerts, and why this could be a major problem for customers everywhere. From potential overdraft fees to missed payments, this change is a huge deal—and it’s not just happening at Santander. I also share personal experiences where banking alerts saved me from fraud and costly mistakes. Plus, we dive into some other banking scandals, layoffs at Goldman Sachs, and even tips for protecting yourself when it comes to side hustles and taxes. You don’t want to miss this one!"
"There will be a little disturbance, but we are OK with that…
all we needed was a new President."
- Donald Trump, after edging out George Washington
as best president in US history.
Baltimore, Maryland - "The USA had the first mover advantage. Its Declaration of Independence in 1776 began the Age of Democracy. France had a messier upheaval in 1789…and reverted to Big Man rule only a few years later, when Napoleon crowned himself. Nevertheless, democracy was the Primary Political Trend of the 19th and 20th centuries.
The idea was that nations could be governed by principles…rules…and laws, rather than the will of dictators, kings or strongmen. The US wrote a Constitution…a set of rules on paper that everyone accepted, more or less. Whatever challenges the new nation faced would be met according to the plan. Power was channeled through institutions. Laws would be written by the peoples’ representatives in elected parliaments. They would be administered by the President, also elected by the voters. Conflicts would be settled in courts.
The model was so attractive that it became one of America’s leading exports. European nations took to it wholeheartedly after the Big Men - Adolph Hitler and Benito Mussolini - were defeated.
Then, after 1945, all over the world ‘democracy’ became as fashionable as Coca-Cola, tailfins and freeways. African nations adopted versions of the US system. Ho Chi Minh in Vietnam also favored the US model…until the US spurned him. Mexico, the Philippines, China - all were influenced by the US democratic system.
And then, with its 800 forward bases, and its CIA spooks promoting regime change in dozens of countries…the US model grew more sinister. But it was still a ‘rules based’ order…with a scope that got bigger and bigger. The World Trade Organization promoted rules for trade. UNESCO sought to apply US leadership to education, science and the arts, just as the UN itself offered a version of globalized parliamentary democracy to the entire planet.
And there was the judicial branch. The International Court of Justice…the International Criminal Court…there is even an International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea. All are expected to provide means of settling disputes without resorting to Big Man bossing or war.
When exactly ‘Peak Democracy’ was reached is a question we leave to others. Perhaps it was that moment in 2005 when Iraq held its first election following the US invasion. Voters held up their index fingers with a purple stain, to show that they had gone along with the gag.
By then, there was already something phony about it. Globalized democracy was becoming decadent - backed, or enforced, by America’s off-the-charts military budget. The US had conquered Iraq; it was replacing previous elites with some of its own choosing. It was no surprise, then, that a former CIA asset - Ayad Allawi - became prime minister.
The larger the scale, the bigger the scam. On a small scale - say, a small town or a church vestry - democracy can work reasonably well. Everybody knows both the policy issues… and the people behind them. They are local. Understandable. Manageable. ‘The People’ really can have a government by, for and of themselves.
Not so for the USA…and even less so for globalized ‘democratic’ institutions. Power corrupts them. Time and distance corrode them. Instead of by, for, and of ‘The People,’ the government is taken over by smallish, privileged elites who devote their entire careers to extracting wealth and power from the people they are meant to serve.
These globalized elites - coming out of the same culture, same schools, same ideology - are very different from ‘the people’ who vote for them. And suddenly it becomes obvious that they hold their constituents in contempt. So it was that the Democrats lost the support of their own base, after tagging those who didn’t concur with their world-improving fantasies as “deplorable” (Hillary Clinton) or “garbage” (Joe Biden).
The electorate may not be too bright or too well informed but it doesn’t like being insulted. And so, come November 5, 2024, voters pulled the lever for a different kind of politician…one who signals a whole new…but much older… government tradition - the Big Man.
The Big Man - Putin in Russia, Xi in China, now Trump in the US - is not necessarily better or worse than the democratic model. On the minus side, he is often blinded by his own genius and makes Big Mistakes. Napoleon in Moscow…the Fuhrer in Stalingrad, Mao’s Cultural Revolution - Big Men tend to overestimate their own abilities and over-reach, often with disastrous consequences. On the plus side, a Big Man leader is able to do things a more conventional ‘democrat’ - such as Joe Biden - couldn’t do.
Today’s democratic system - like an old oak tree, now home to squirrels, worms, birds, vines and other parasites - cannot fix itself. The parasites are in control. The Big Man - less beholden to elites - might be able to clean it up. Governing by edict - Executive Orders, rather than laws - he trashes billions of dollars’ worth of foolish spending…and tosses out much of the claptrap that led the Democrats to their much-deserved loss.
If he were wise and well-meaning, a big man leader might also crash the feds’ runaway spending, balance the budget and save the country from a fiscal catastrophe. He might bring the troops home, too, slash the military budget and avoid any more costly, disastrous adventures.
But as big as he is, he is never entirely independent of the courts, Congress, the bureaucracy, Wall Street, lobbyists, the Deep State, the military, donors…or rich people. Not even Louis 14th had absolute control over the government; he had even less control over the country itself. In every case, an army of willing enforcers, informers, influencers, hangmen and administrators is needed.
By the evidence of his speech on Tuesday night, Mr. Trump has found his yes-monkeys…ready to jump up in interminable applause at every dumb thing he says. Tomorrow, let’s see how he might tackle the biggest threat facing the US. Or not. More to come…"
Beautiful relaxing music for stress relief, composed by Peder B. Helland. This track is called "High Above" and can be used to relax, sleep, meditate, study, work, do yoga, read and more.
"In the center of this serene stellar swirl is likely a harrowing black-hole beast. The surrounding swirl sweeps around billions of stars which are highlighted by the brightest and bluest. The breadth and beauty of the display give the swirl the designation of a grand design spiral galaxy.
The central beast shows evidence that it is a supermassive black hole about 10 million times the mass of our Sun. This ferocious creature devours stars and gas and is surrounded by a spinning moat of hot plasma that emits blasts of X-rays. The central violent activity gives it the designation of a Seyfert galaxy. Together, this beauty and beast are cataloged as NGC 6814 and have been appearing together toward the constellation of the Eagle (Aquila) for roughly the past billion years."
"In a short story that was published posthumously in the New Yorker, the inestimable Primo Levi meditated on the limits of language. The story was called “The Tranquil Star.” He writes "The star was very big and very hot, and its weight was enormous," and realizes immediately that the adjectives have failed him: “For a discussion of stars our language is inadequate and seems laughable, as if someone were trying to plow with a feather. It's a language that was born with us, suitable for describing objects more or less as large and long-lasting as we are; it has our dimensions, it's human. It doesn't go beyond what our senses tell us.
Until fairly recently in human history, there was nothing smaller than a scabies mite, writes Levi, and therefore no adjective to describe it. Nothing bigger than the sea or sky. Nothing hotter than fire. We can add modifiers: very big, very small, very hot. Or use adjectives of dubious superlativeness: enormous, colossal, extraordinary. But, really, these feeble stretchings of language don't take us very far in grasping the very, very, very extraordinarily diminutive or spectacularly colossal dimensions of atomic matter or cosmic space and time. We can overcome the limitations of language, Levi say, "only with a violent effort of the imagination."
I spent more than forty years trying to find ways to violently stretch the imaginations of my students (and myself) to accommodate the dimensions of the universe revealed by science. I would project onto a huge screen a photograph of a firestorm on the Sun, then superimpose a scale-sized Earth, which fit comfortably inside a loop of solar fire. I would take the class into the College Quad here near Boston, where I had set up a basketball to represent the Sun, then gathered 100 feet away with a pinhead Earth; we walked together with our pin in the great annual journey of the Earth, and looked through a telescope at the marble-sized Jupiter than I had previously installed at the other end of the long Quad (the next closest star system would have been a couple of basketballs in Hawaii). We walked geologic timelines that took us from one end of the campus to the other.
In one of my Globe essays I used this analogy: “Imagine the human DNA as a strand of sewing thread. On this scale, the DNA in the 23 pairs of chromosomes in a typical human cell would be about 150 miles long, with about 600 nucleotide pairs per inch. That is, the DNA in a single cell is equivalent to 1000 spools of sewing thread, representing two copies of the genetic code. Take all that thread - the 1000 spools worth - and crumple it into 46 wads (the chromosomes). Stuff the wads into a shoe box (the cell nucleus) along with - oh, say enough chicken soup to fill the box. Toss the shoe box into a steamer trunk (the cell), and fill the rest of the trunk with more soup. Take the steamer trunk with its contents and shrink it down to an invisibly small object, smaller than the point of a pin. Multiply that tiny object by a trillion and you have the trillion cells of the human body, each with its full complement of DNA.”
Or this description from 'Waking Zero': “The track of the Prime Meridian across England from Peace Haven in the south to the mouth of the River Humber in the north is nearly 200 miles. If that distance is taken to represent the 13.7 billion year history of the universe, as we understand it today, then all of recorded human history is less than a single step. The entire story I have told in this book, from the Alexandrian astronomers and geographers to the present-day astronomers who launch telescopes into space, would fit neatly into a single footprint. If the 200 miles of the meridian track is taken to represent the distance to the most distant objects we observe with our telescopes, then a couple of steps would take us across the Milky Way Galaxy. A mote of dust from my shoe is large enough to contain not only our own solar system but many neighboring stars.”
But as hard as one tries, the scale of these things escape us. If one could truly comprehend what we are seeing when we look, say, at the Hubble Ultra Deep Field Photoabove, which I have done my best to convey to myself and others in a dozen ways, it would surely shake to the core some of our most cherished beliefs. Just as our language is contrived on a human scale, so too are our gods.”
"Having the wisdom to know that life is but a dream does not mean that we ignore living. As children, most of us sang that mesmerizing, wistful lullaby that ends with the words, 'Life is but a dream.' This is a classic example of a deep, sophisticated truth hiding, like an underground stream, in an unlikely place. It winds its way through our minds like a riddle or a Zen koan, coming up when we least expect it and asking that we consider its meaning. Many gurus and philosophers agree with this mysterious observation, saying that this world we perceive as real is actually an illusion, not unlike a film being projected on a screen. Most of us are so involved in the projection that we don't understand it for what it is. We are completely caught up in the illusion, imagining that we are in a life and death struggle and taking it very seriously.
The enlightened few, on the other hand, live their lives in the light of the awareness that what most of us perceive as reality is a passing fancy. As a result, they behave with detachment, compassion, and wisdom, while the rest of us struggle and writhe upon the stage in the play of our life. Having the wisdom to know that life is but a dream does not mean that we ignore it or don't do our best with the twists and turns of our fate. Rather, like an actress who plays her role fully even as she knows it's only a role, we engage in the unfolding drama, but with a little more freedom because we know that this is not the totality of who we are.
And life is more of an improvisation than it is like a play whose lines have already been written, whose end is already known. Like an improviser, we have choices to make and the more we embrace the illusionary quality of the performance, the lighter we can be on the planet, on others, and on ourselves. We can truly play with the shadows cast by the light of the projector, fully engaging without getting bogged down."
"We are game-playing, fun-having creatures, we are the otters of the universe. We cannot die, we cannot hurt ourselves any more than illusions on the screen can be hurt. But we can believe we're hurt, in whatever agonizing detail we want. We can believe we're victims, killed and killing, shuddered around by good luck and bad luck. "
"Many lifetimes? ", I asked.
"How many movies have you seen? "
"Oh."
"Films about living on this planet, about living on other planets; anything that's got space and time is all movie and all illusion, " he said. "But for a while we can learn a huge amount and have a lot of fun with our illusions, can we not?"
"One of Seneca's (Dead Roman Philosopher Dude) most famous quotes is, "It is not that we have a short time to live, but that we waste a lot of it." What surprises me is that Seneca wrote this before Twitter® existed. But even back in the time of Rome, there were ways to waste time. I’m thinking Facebook® might be that old.
Regardless, his message is timeless: every moment that we’re breathing here on Earth is precious. We may not always get a choice as to how we spend our time (Ted Kaczynski seems to be booked every day) but the true crime is to waste time. Oh, and blowing people up.
I have been as guilty as anyone of wasting time. And one of the biggest wastes of time is to become consumed by negative thoughts and emotions. In reality, most of the time (most) the things that irritate me are small. How small? So small that if I pack up my emotions, and really assess as to why I’m mad, it just looks silly. When Hillary reflects on why she’s mad, well, she calls the Suicide Hotline and places an order.
But that reflection is crucial. It’s called self-control, and although it appears to be unfashionable in certain locations (Chicago, I’m looking at you) it is the only way to be successful. If I threw a temper tantrum when (spins wheel) I drop a sock on the floor, I think there’s a simple word for that in the English language: Leftist feminist the ATF unstable.
No, when I’m upset I stop. I take a deep breath. I ask myself, “Does it matter?” Most of the time, it doesn’t. At all. Very few of the things that have irritated me matter at all over any rational timeframe. The old two rules apply: 1. Don’t sweat the small stuff. 2. It’s all small stuff.
The second question is, can I control whatever the situation is or influence it? If the answer is no, then that’s like being mad that the Sun is coming up in the morning. Even if it’s my mistake, it’s sillier than being angry over the English coal minimum price subsidy in the 1800s or...anything that happened in 1619.
One concept I’ve come across recently is "amor fati," which is Latin for “put armor on fat people”. Oh, wait, my translator was wrong. It really means, "love your fate." I think I first heard a variation of this when I was a kid: “You get what you get, and you’ll like it, and grease up the fat people so we can put plate mail on them.”
The reality of amor fati is this, though: I am where I am, and I have a choice. I can get up every morning and be mad, or I can be happy where I am. Does that mean I’m content? No. Does that mean I’m not going to fight like hell? No. Does that mean I’m not going to try to change certain things with the fire of a thousand suns? No.
It does mean that if life sucks, I can still find meaning, still find purpose, and still try to create the change that I seek to create. It’s not complacency. Heck, Seneca himself was one of the richest dudes in all of Rome. That didn’t just happen. He didn’t just wake up one morning, and say, “Holy crap, I have an amazing amount of money. How did that happen?” Seneca embraced what he had, and tried to better himself, and change himself. He did okay.
Our choices are our choices, but even more than that, we always have the choice how we feel, even Ted Kaczynski. We may have lost everything else, but we always retain that. We should not be overcome by fear or despair. To be clear – those are just about the most negative things we can let into our lives, unless you know one of the women on 'The View.'
The only proper way to deal with tough times is to face into them. Our obstacles make us stronger. Each obstacle we face with virtue and excellence improves us. Except for bullets. Those sound like they really suck.
Regardless of all of that, the first point is still the most important: our lives aren’t too short – our lives are exactly as long as they are. Deal with it. Love it. Use your time – every minute. Every second you waste? It’s wasting your life. Now, go make something happen."
"I had lived thirty good years before enduring my first food poisoning - odds quite fortunate in the grand scheme of things, but miserably unfortunate in the immediate experience of it. I found myself completely incapacitated to erect the pillars of my daily life - too cognitively foggy to read and write, too physically weak to work out or even meditate. The temporary disability soon elevated the assault on my mind and body to a new height of anguish: an intense experience of stress. Even as I consoled myself with Nabokov’s exceptionally florid account of food poisoning, I couldn’t shake the overwhelming malaise that had engulfed me - somehow, a physical illness had completely colored my psychoemotional reality.
This experience, of course, is far from uncommon. Long before scientists began shedding light on how our minds and bodies actually affect one another, an intuitive understanding of this dialogue between the body and the emotions, or feelings, emerged and permeated our very language: We use “feeling sick” as a grab-bag term for both the sensory symptoms - fever, fatigue, nausea - and the psychological malaise, woven of emotions like sadness and apathy.
Pre-modern medicine, in fact, has recognized this link between disease and emotion for millennia. Ancient Greek, Roman, and Indian Ayurvedic physicians all enlisted the theory of the four humors - blood, yellow bile, black bile, and phlegm - in their healing practices, believing that imbalances in these four visible secretions of the body caused disease and were themselves often caused by the emotions. These beliefs are fossilized in our present language - melancholy comes from the Latin words for “black” (melan) and “bitter bile” (choler), and we think of a melancholic person as gloomy or embittered; a phlegmatic person is languid and impassive, for phlegm makes one lethargic.
For nearly three centuries, the idea that our emotions could impact our physical health remained scientific taboo - setting out to fight one type of dogma, Descartes had inadvertently created another, which we’re only just beginning to shake off. It was only in the 1950s that Austrian-Canadian physician and physiologist Hans Selye pioneered the notion of stress as we now know it today, drawing the scientific community’s attention to the effects of stress on physical health and popularizing the concept around the world. (In addition to his scientific dedication, Selye also understood the branding component of any successful movement and worked tirelessly to include the word itself in dictionaries around the world; today, “stress” is perhaps the word pronounced most similarly in the greatest number of major languages.)
But no researcher has done more to illuminate the invisible threads that weave mind and body together than Dr. Esther Sternberg. Her groundbreaking work on the link between the central nervous system and the immune system, exploring how immune molecules made in the blood can trigger brain function that profoundly affects our emotions, has revolutionized our understanding of the integrated being we call a human self. In the immeasurably revelatory "The Balance Within: The Science Connecting Health and Emotions" (public library), Sternberg examines the interplay of our emotions and our physical health, mediated by that seemingly nebulous yet, it turns out, remarkably concrete experience called stress.
With an eye to modern medicine’s advances in cellular and molecular biology, which have made it possible to measure how our nervous system and our hormones affect our susceptibility to diseases as varied as depression, arthritis, AIDS, and chronic fatigue syndrome, Sternberg writes: "By parsing these chemical intermediaries, we can begin to understand the biological underpinnings of how emotions affect diseases…
The same parts of the brain that control the stress response… play an important role in susceptibility and resistance to inflammatory diseases such as arthritis. And since it is these parts of the brain that also play a role in depression, we can begin to understand why it is that many patients with inflammatory diseases may also experience depression at different times in their lives… Rather than seeing the psyche as the source of such illnesses, we are discovering that while feelings don’t directly cause or cure disease, the biological mechanisms underlying them may cause or contribute to disease. Thus, many of the nerve pathways and molecules underlying both psychological responses and inflammatory disease are the same, making predisposition to one set of illnesses likely to go along with predisposition to the other.
The questions need to be rephrased, therefore, to ask which of the many components that work together to create emotions also affect that other constellation of biological events, immune responses, which come together to fight or to cause disease. Rather than asking if depressing thoughts can cause an illness of the body, we need to ask what the molecules and nerve pathways are that cause depressing thoughts. And then we need to ask whether these affect the cells and molecules that cause disease.
[…]
We are even beginning to sort out how emotional memories reach the parts of the brain that control the hormonal stress response, and how such emotions can ultimately affect the workings of the immune system and thus affect illnesses as disparate as arthritis and cancer. We are also beginning to piece together how signals from the immune system can affect the brain and the emotional and physical responses it controls: the molecular basis of feeling sick. In all this, the boundaries between mind and body are beginning to blur."
Indeed, the relationship between memory, emotion, and stress is perhaps the most fascinating aspect of Sternberg’s work. She considers how we deal with the constant swirl of inputs and outputs as we move through the world, barraged by a stream of stimuli and sensations:
"Every minute of the day and night we feel thousands of sensations that might trigger a positive emotion such as happiness, or a negative emotion such as sadness, or no emotion at all: a trace of perfume, a light touch, a fleeting shadow, a strain of music. And there are thousands of physiological responses, such as palpitations or sweating, that can equally accompany positive emotions such as love, or negative emotions such as fear, or can happen without any emotional tinge at all. What makes these sensory inputs and physiological outputs emotions is the charge that gets added to them somehow, somewhere in our brains. Emotions in their fullest sense comprise all of these components. Each can lead into the black box and produce an emotional experience, or something in the black box can lead out to an emotional response that seems to come from nowhere."
Memory, it turns out, is one of the major factors mediating the dialogue between sensation and emotional experience. Our memories of past experience become encoded into triggers that act as switchers on the rail of psychoemotional response, directing the incoming train of present experience in the direction of one emotional destination or another.
Sternberg writes: "Mood is not homogeneous like cream soup. It is more like Swiss cheese, filled with holes. The triggers are highly specific, tripped by sudden trails of memory: a faint fragrance, a few bars of a tune, a vague silhouette that tapped into a sad memory buried deep, but not completely erased. These sensory inputs from the moment float through layers of time in the parts of the brain that control memory, and they pull out with them not only reminders of sense but also trails of the emotions that were first connected to the memory. These memories become connected to emotions, which are processed in other parts of the brain: the amygdala for fear, the nucleus accumbens for pleasure - those same parts that the anatomists had named for their shapes. And these emotional brain centers are linked by nerve pathways to the sensory parts of the brain and to the frontal lobe and hippocampus - the coordinating centers of thought and memory. The same sensory input can trigger a negative emotion or a positive one, depending on the memories associated with it."
This is where stress comes in - much like memory mediates how we interpret and respond to various experiences, a complex set of biological and psychological factors determine how we respond to stress. Some types of stress can be stimulating and invigorating, mobilizing us into action and creative potency; others can be draining and incapacitating, leaving us frustrated and hopeless. This dichotomy of good vs. bad stress, Sternberg notes, is determined by the biology undergirding our feelings - by the dose and duration of the stress hormones secreted by the body in response to the stressful stimulus. She explains the neurobiological machinery behind this response:
" As soon as the stressful event occurs, it triggers the release of the cascade of hypothalamic, pituitary, and adrenal hormones - the brain’s stress response. It also triggers the adrenal glands to release epinephrine, or adrenaline, and the sympathetic nerves to squirt out the adrenaline-like chemical norepinephrine all over the body: nerves that wire the heart, and gut, and skin. So, the heart is driven to beat faster, the fine hairs of your skin stand up, you sweat, you may feel nausea or the urge to defecate. But your attention is focused, your vision becomes crystal clear, a surge of power helps you run - these same chemicals released from nerves make blood flow to your muscles, preparing you to sprint.
All this occurs quickly. If you were to measure the stress hormones in your blood or saliva, they would already be increased within three minutes of the event. In experimental psychology tests, playing a fast-paced video game will make salivary cortisol increase and norepinephrine spill over into venous blood almost as soon as the virtual battle begins. But if you prolong the stress, by being unable to control it or by making it too potent or long-lived, and these hormones and chemicals still continue to pump out from nerves and glands, then the same molecules that mobilized you for the short haul now debilitate you."
These effects of stress exist on a bell curve - that is, some is good, but too much becomes bad: As the nervous system secretes more and more stress hormones, performance increases, but up to a point; after that tipping point, performance begins to suffer as the hormones continue to flow. What makes stress “bad” - that is, what makes it render us more pervious to disease - is the disparity between the nervous system and immune system’s respective pace. Sternberg explains:
"The nervous system and the hormonal stress response react to a stimulus in milliseconds, seconds, or minutes. The immune system takes parts of hours or days. It takes much longer than two minutes for immune cells to mobilize and respond to an invader, so it is unlikely that a single, even powerful, short-lived stress on the order of moments could have much of an effect on immune responses. However, when the stress turns chronic, immune defenses begin to be impaired. As the stressful stimulus hammers on, stress hormones and chemicals continue to pump out. Immune cells floating in this milieu in blood, or passing through the spleen, or growing up in thymic nurseries never have a chance to recover from the unabated rush of cortisol. Since cortisol shuts down immune cells’ responses, shifting them to a muted form, less able to react to foreign triggers, in the context of continued stress we are less able to defend and fight when faced with new invaders. And so, if you are exposed to, say, a flu or common cold virus when you are chronically stressed out, your immune system is less able to react and you become more susceptible to that infection."
Extended exposure to stress, especially to a variety of stressors at the same time - any combination from the vast existential menu of life-events like moving, divorce, a demanding job, the loss of a loved one, and even ongoing childcare - adds up a state of extreme exhaustion that leads to what we call burnout.
Sternberg writes: "Members of certain professions are more prone to burnout than others - nurses and teachers, for example, are among those at highest risk. These professionals are faced daily with caregiving situations in their work lives, often with inadequate pay, inadequate help in their jobs, and with too many patients or students in their charge. Some studies are beginning to show that burnt-out patients may have not only psychological burnout, but also physiological burnout: a flattened cortisol response and inability to respond to any stress with even a slight burst of cortisol. In other words, chronic unrelenting stress can change the stress response itself. And it can change other hormone systems in the body as well.
One of the most profound such changes affects the reproductive system - extended periods of stress can shut down the secretion of reproductive hormones in both men and women, resulting in lower fertility. But the effects are especially perilous for women - recurring and extended episodes of depression result in permanent changes in bone structure, increasing the risk of osteoporosis. In other words, we register stress literally in our bones."
But stress isn’t a direct causal function of the circumstances we’re in - what either amplifies or ameliorates our experience of stress is, once again, memory. Sternberg writes: "Our perception of stress, and therefore our response to it, is an ever-changing thing that depends a great deal on the circumstances and settings in which we find ourselves. It depends on previous experience and knowledge, as well as on the actual event that has occurred. And it depends on memory, too."
The most acute manifestation of how memory modulates stress is post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD. For striking evidence of how memory encodes past experience into triggers, which then catalyze present experience, Sternberg points to research by psychologist Rachel Yehuda, who found both Holocaust survivors and their first-degree relatives - that is, children and siblings - exhibited a similar hormonal stress response.
This, Sternberg points out, could be a combination of nature and nurture - the survivors, as young parents for whom the trauma was still fresh, may well have subconsciously taught their children a common style of stress-responsiveness; but it’s also possible that these automatic hormonal stress responses permanently changed the parents’ biology and were transmitted via DNA to their children. Once again, memory encodes stress into our very bodies. Sternberg considers the broader implications:
"Stress need not be on the order of war, rape, or the Holocaust to trigger at least some elements of PTSD. Common stresses that we all experience can trigger the emotional memory of a stressful circumstance - and all its accompanying physiological responses. Prolonged stress - such as divorce, a hostile workplace, the end of a relationship, or the death of a loved one - can all trigger elements of PTSD."
Among the major stressors - which include life-events expected to be on the list, such as divorce and the death of a loved one - is also one somewhat unexpected situation, at least to those who haven’t undergone it: moving. Sternberg considers the commonalities between something as devastating as death and something as mundane as moving:
"One is certainly loss - the loss of someone or something familiar. Another is novelty - finding oneself in a new and unfamiliar place because of the loss. Together these amount to change: moving away from something one knows and toward something one doesn’t. An unfamiliar environment is a universal stressor to nearly all species, no matter how developed or undeveloped."
In the remainder of the thoroughly illuminating "The Balance Within," Sternberg goes on to explore the role of interpersonal relationships in both contributing to stress and shielding us from it, how the immune system changes our moods, and what we can do to harness these neurobiological insights in alleviating our experience of the stressors with which every human life is strewn."
“Everyone knows they need to manage their stress. When things get difficult at work, school, or in your personal life, you can use as many tips, tricks, and techniques as you can get to calm your nerves. So here’s a science-backed one: make a playlist of the 10 songs found to be the most relaxing on earth. Sound therapies have long been popular as a way of relaxing and restoring one’s health. For centuries, indigenous cultures have used music to enhance well-being and improve health conditions.
Now, neuroscientists out of the UK have specified which tunes give you the most bang for your musical buck. The study was conducted on participants who attempted to solve difficult puzzles as quickly as possible while connected to sensors. The puzzles induced a certain level of stress, and participants listened to different songs while researchers measured brain activity as well as physiological states that included heart rate, blood pressure, and rate of breathing.
According to Dr. David Lewis-Hodgson of Mindlab International, which conducted the research, the top song produced a greater state of relaxation than any other music tested to date. In fact, listening to that one song- “Weightless”- resulted in a striking 65 percent reduction in participants’ overall anxiety, and a 35 percent reduction in their usual physiological resting rates. That is remarkable.
Equally remarkable is the fact the song was actually constructed to do so. The group that created “Weightless”, Marconi Union, did so in collaboration with sound therapists. Its carefully arranged harmonies, rhythms, and bass lines help slow a listener’s heart rate, reduce blood pressure and lower levels of the stress hormone cortisol.
When it comes to lowering anxiety, the stakes couldn’t be higher. Stress either exacerbates or increases the risk of health issues like heart disease, obesity, depression, gastrointestinal problems, asthma, and more. More troubling still, a recent paper out of Harvard and Stanford found health issues from job stress alone cause more deaths than diabetes, Alzheimer’s, or influenza.
In this age of constant bombardment, the science is clear: if you want your mind and body to last, you’ve got to prioritize giving them a rest. Music is an easy way to take some of the pressure off of all the pings, dings, apps, tags, texts, emails, appointments, meetings, and deadlines that can easily spike your stress level and leave you feeling drained and anxious.
Of the top track, Dr. David Lewis-Hodgson said, “‘Weightless’ was so effective, many women became drowsy and I would advise against driving while listening to the song because it could be dangerous.” So don’t drive while listening to these, but do take advantage of them:
"Truth: the most deadly weapon ever discovered by humanity.
Capable of destroying entire perceptual sets, cultures, and realities.
Outlawed by all governments everywhere.
Possession is normally punishable by death."
- John Gilmore
A comment: According to statistics compiled by the UN, by the time the sun rises tomorrow morning 30,000 children world wide will have died overnight from malnutrition, disease, lack of potable water, and lack of basic medical care. That's every night, all year long, 30,000 children dying because no one cared. Trillions of dollars wasted on insane wars, economies destroyed by psychopathic greed, the environment dying in front of our eyes, and no one cares. No wonder Sir Arthur Conan Doyle described humanity as, "Poor silly half-brained things peering out at the infinite, with the aspirations of angels and the instincts of beasts." The "instincts of beasts" is evident for all to see... sometimes all this wears me down, and I look around, hoping to see the "aspirations of angels," hoping desperately that we can somehow awaken from the madness crushing us all, that together we can still rise above the despair and hopelessness and make a better world, where no child dies from hunger, where wars are a distant memory, where everyone can live full, dignified and honorable lives in peace. An impossible, hopeless struggle? Perhaps, but how dare we call ourselves "Human" if we don't try to make that vision real, in any way we can, no matter the price? A dream, you say? Yes, that's all it is... but without those dreams, those aspirations, all that's left is the "instincts of beasts", and we all see very clearly what those have brought this world to... - CP
"Egypt have just spelt out detailed plans for what could potentially lead to the end of Benjamin Netanyahu's time in power. Right, so we’ve finally got the details of the Egyptian led plan for the reconstruction of Gaza. It is detailed, it is thorough, it still raises a few questions, but compared to the Israel and Trump endorsed plan, it is orders of magnitude better, not that that was a very high bar to cross, when the alternative is forced displacement of the entire Gaza Strip to neighbouring countries who have not only refused that, but have now come up with and gained the backing of Arab leaders from across the Middle East.
Gaza has endured months of destruction and is now at the mercy of Israel once again as they cut off aid supplies and resume strikes, to all intents and purposes ending the ceasefire as they have because they’ve once again changed the rules and demand everyone else accept that or else. The world is tired at seeing Israel act with impunity, now a plan to restore Gaza is on the table, the small matter of putting Israel in their place and removing them from this equation, much as this plan also removes Hamas from it as well, must be approached. If the entire Middle East can now finally speak with one voice, backing this plan as something they want to see delivered, then how they choose to deal with Israel next, as they must, is critical.
Right, so it is hardly breaking news to anyone on the planet I shouldn’t think by this point that Gaza is in ruins and its population war weary and utterly traumatized by the death and destruction meted out on them and their loved ones, but there may be good news on the horizon in the aftermath of this catastrophe. Egypt as we know has been working on a plan to rebuild and they have now announced a very ambitious $53 billion plan to reconstruct Gaza and their proposal has garnered support from across Middle Eastern Arab nations in attendance in Cairo yesterday for this plan to finally be made public and the Palestinian Authority, massively criticized for their aiding and abetting Israeli atrocity in the West Bank were also in attendance and some intriguing news came from them too, which I’ll come onto in a moment.
The Israeli genocide of Gaza has of course resulted in unprecedented levels of destruction. Entire neighborhoods have been reduced to rubble, critical infrastructure has been obliterated, and tens of thousands of civilians were killed or injured and many more than that have been forcibly displaced from their homes. War crimes every one of them. The international community, human rights organizations, we as ordinary observers have for months condemned Israel’s actions as disproportionate and genocidal, accusing it of targeting civilian populations and infrastructure because that is exactly what they have been doing. Homes, schools, hospitals, everything levelled because it is Hamas, or a Hamas base, no matter how ridiculous and illegal the act. Israel will justify anything it does without restraint. The devastation has left what is left Gaza’s original 2.3 million inhabitants in dire need of humanitarian assistance and long-term reconstruction."
"The monstrous thing is not that men have created roses out of this dung heap, but that, for some reason or other, they should want roses. For some reason or other man looks for the miracle, and to accomplish it he will wade through blood. He will debauch himself with ideas, he will reduce himself to a shadow if for only one second of his life he can close his eyes to the hideousness of reality. Everything is endured - disgrace, humiliation, poverty, war, crime, ennui - in the belief that overnight something will occur, a miracle, which will render life tolerable. And all the while a meter is running inside and there is no hand that can reach in there and shut it off."
