Cocoa for health

Bitter cocoa benefits blood. In TCM, we associate bitterness with the liver. The liver stores blood. When we go to bed between 11-1AM, the blood returns to the liver to get "freshened", in preparation for another new day. A lot of Chinese herbs that benefit and/or "quicken" blood are bitter in nature. One herb, Gou Teng (Uncaria rhynchophylla), has a bit of epicatechins. This herb has the ability to stop tremors, lower blood pressure, and surprise surprise it can treat migraine--a friend of mine eats dark chocolate to deal with her migraine headache.

how the heck do you "decontaminate"?

In the news, it was reported that workers had to be "decontaminated" after being exposed to a high level of radiation. Did anyone look into what decontamination entails?

Guess what, it's basically throwing away your clothes and take a shower. No chemicals needed unless you want to use the opportunity to wash your hair and skin.

Here is how we decontaminate in the 23rd century (Star Trek Enterprise series):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRRE9zA1C5Q

Antioxidants Quick and Easy

Let's begin with a poem by Wordsworth:

The world is too much with us; late and soon,

Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers;

Little we see in Nature that is ours;

We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!

This Sea that bares her bosom to the moon,

The winds that will be howling at all hours,

And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers,

For this, for everything, we are out of tune;

It moves us not.--Great God! I'd rather be

A Pagan suckled in a creed outworn;

So might I, standing on this pleasant lea,

Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn;

Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea;

Or hear old Triton blow his wreathed horn.

We are busy hustling and bustling about grasping and rejecting, seizing and sizing, praising and scorning, producing and destroying, rise and fall, you get the idea. Not surprising, few of us has time to sit in the company of bamboos and wind chimes to enjoy exquisite green tea from the lofty mountains of Taiwan. Or savor the red, black, and cranberries from the farmer's market. Who has time to peel a pomelo?

With our frenetic pace of life, whereto shall we find our antioxidants? Alas, we seek them in supplements. Until we slow down and take more deep breaths, it may be this way for some time to come.

Is there something in between that we can do? Maybe go for coffee and dark chocolates, as I've heard they contain a trove of antioxidants!

Nuclear power revisited....

Hitherto, I thought that nuclear fission was unique to mankind. However, I recently learned that in a mining site in Gabon (West Africa), some two billion years ago, mother nature experimented briefly with nuclear fission employing uranium U235. Scientists in 1972 discovered trace elements characteristic to of a nuclear chain reaction.

Given that nuclear energy is 20% of our energy output, are we ready to give it up for more coals, fracking, petroleum, etc.

I heard on the radio the other night about using thorium instead of uranium. From my initial reading, this technology seems very promising:

1. compared to uranium, there are lots and lots of thorium

2. compared to uranium, less waste product

3. smaller containment unit

4. passive reactor design in case of plant blackout

Supposedly, China is building thorium reactors as speak.....

Producer of the ten thousand things

I suddenly recalled that the meaning of life, as proclaimed in a certain book, is 42. I therefore looked at chapter 42 of the Dao De Jing and found:

The Tao produces one, one produces two. The two produce the three and the three produce all things.

All things submit to yin and embrace yang. They soften their energy to achieve harmony.

People hate to think of themselves as "orphan," "lowly," and "unworthy"

Yet the kings call themselves by these names.

Some lose and yet gain, Others gain and yet lose.

That which is taught by the people I also teach: "The forceful do not choose their place of death." I regard this as the father of all teachings.

Doesn't this explain cellular division, nuclear fission, and the citric acid cycle? Sort of, if we use our imagination and expand our minds to the boundary of the limitless universe.

Originally, there was ultimate quiescence. The stirring of this tranquil state caused the one to produce the two, and then there is life. Life is seen from the cellular level, as well as in galactic cannibalism.

Because of the myriad creations, there arises differentiations: yin, yang, woman, man, good, bad, love, hate. Hence, for life to be peaceful, there must be harmony of energy, whether that is Qi or nuclear. Life is a balancing act.

People all want the same things: praise, love, comfort, nourishment, and wealth. Yet, sages and noble ones can let them go and be at ease without them. They are certainly like phoenixes and unicorns.

The process of give and take is evidenced in nature, like the heroic journey of a salmon from a small stream to the ocean and back again to the same small to spawn and die. Sacrifice is not necessarily bad, to have everything is not necessarily a good thing. The balance of giving and taking is true contentment. In the post ONE universe, one can't get something from nothing. We need food and rest to get energy.

Being imbalance and rigid is the way of life. To determine our fate and demise is wisdom.

we've got the power?

My heart goes out for the resilient people of Japan. Earthquakes, tsunamis, radiation, cold, hunger, disease, anxiety, grief, and loss all befell upon them within a few short days.

Yesterday we learned about radiation in the tap water. Mothers rushed to the stores to find empty shelves where water bottles were once in abundance. If only our tears could be used to relieve their plight.

I was once a nuclear energy supporter. But today, I wonder whether it is worth it? A 40-year cornucopia of energy must be repaid a severe price.

Let's put our collective minds towards finding a new and safer source of energy. How about using the methane hydrates in the ocean, natural gas, solar power through improved efficiency, nuclear fusion, nuclear fission using thorium, wind, tidal power, algae, cow manures, hemp--keep searching!

a world in a grain of sand

This week's reading "Water, air, fire, earth: the original fab four," has got me thinking a great deal about the nature of my existence. It is mind blowing to conceive that my physical being was conceived billions of years ago through a great cosmic explosion. The atoms in my body are ancient and older than time. Where did they come from? Did they come from another universe before the great bang? Afterwards, my atoms have travelled a vast distance for ten of billions of years to finally settle in a tiny solar system. And today, my physical constituent is no more complex than a throway cellphone.

But you know, there has to be more to us than a smattering of atoms delicately cobbled together. Is there? Is there a spark of nature or divinity within us? Are these atoms animated by the divine finger of the great Creator as beautifully depicted by Michelangelo in the Sistine Chapel? Is it because we think hence we are?

This wonderment has awakened me to the "wonders of daily living". Yes, I have a glimpse of what Blake was saying:

"To see a world in a grain of sand,

And a heaven in a wild flower,

Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,

And eternity in an hour."