Bags of Water
(not because one didn't already know it)

Hydration:
The Human Brain is 75% water.
Moderate dehydration will cause headaches and even dizziness.
Hydration regulates body temperature.
Allows the immune system to function well.
Mediates nutrient & oxygen transport to every cell in the body.
Assists the body's absorption of nutrients.
Mediates removal of wastes.

Water:
Facilitates conversion of ingested foods into energy.
Protects and cushions vital organs.
Cushions joints.
Muscles are 75% water.
Bones are 22% water.

Water to else ratio in the body mirrors the water to else ratio of Earth.

Thoughtful Watching

apologies to U2-
http://www.ifilm.com/ifilmdetail/2740245

colbert on bush jr.-
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-869183917758574879

the bomb-
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7278951069225366106

bus uncle-
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2158402221665434053&q=bus+uncle

Insubstantiality

The urge to write billows, like a thunderhead borne aloft on the convective currents of a southwestern desert afternoon in late June. Amorphous though it may be, the giant is impossible to ignore. It towers over that vast but deceptively empty landscape. Nature demands attention.

So, I must write, even though my mind seems a desert in its apparent paucity of formed thought and sentiments. Swirls of emotion urge the tiny, nascent, effervescent droplets of ideas – they are hardly with substance in individual aspect but cannot be ignored when urged to coalesce into the massive shape of a hallmark anvil. The cloud towers far above me; it reaches for the limits of the atmosphere.

A form whose significance is unmistakable, yet it is ever changing, ever mutable, whose essence can be understood in general terms, perhaps, but whose specific power and raison d’être vis-à-vis the supposed confines of my own mind continue to be ever just beyond grasp. How awesome the energy contained and how substantial the potential expression of its power can be, yet, when I reach for it, it dissolves, it is always insubstantial wisps.

Ah!

As they say...

Given that all that glitters is not gold and great haste makes great waste, evey one can find fault, [even if] few can do better.

Yet, [at times] one must give the devil his due, even if it's no use crying over spilt milk and even if we let not the pot call the kettle black.

If we accept that it takes [at least] two to make a quarrel, clearly, prevention is better than cure and if speech is silver, silence golden.

Recall that still waters run deep, whereas, empty vessels make the most noise.

Therefore, discretion is [certainly] the better part of valor!

noblesse oblige

it appears that undergraduate housing at the finest of our noble institutions of higher learning in the united states finds the most minimal of accomodation standards quite adequate ...

NYC Rent Guidelines Board
Sec. 27-2067 Sanitary facilities in rooming units (intended for those formerly homeless but now on their way at least to salvage)

a. Every building containing rooming units, and each individual apartment used for single room occupancy, shall contain at least one water closet, washbasin and bath or shower for each six persons lawfully occupying rooming units therein, and for any remainder of less than six persons.

river

A river of sadness runs in spate through the landscape of my mind altering familiar landmarks and creating the unfamiliar. As I wend through this land, known yet new, I wonder again what time it is. Patches of light illuminate distant spurs of ideas to my minds eye, snatches of songs vaguely heard and half remembered, not quite forgotten. I am here yet, where I was is here, once again. I remember sitting in a barber’s chair, I am a child getting my hair cut, it is an old building from colonial times, it is rounded, an entire side is open to a verandah that flows to the outside through a row of columns, a clean well paved open space with a large shade giving tree, a benevolent giant stands there, a few cars are parked there and it is quiet, uncrowded, that afternoon. The image, perhaps drawn and not a photgraph, of another haircut, depicts the side of the head of a model, dating from 1944 – that is what I remember, it appears to have originated at the time of the second world war – serves to guide the man who trims my hair, I am not happy to be thus shorn. It is not a warm day but neither is it cold; in an instant this last thought brings me back to where I breathe ... in the present. The future is glimpsed like the tantalizing shimmer of something wished for, half imagined, half ‘real,’ not quite understood. I am here now.

cold facts

A study, by researchers at the Cardiff University in England, was conducted in 2005 on 180 volunteers. Some were forced to keep their bare feet in icy water for long periods, and others stayed dry. Within five days, 29 percent of those in the cold group developed sore throats and runny noses, compared with less than 10 percent in the second group.

One theory is that many people harbor mild dormant infections in the cold season that produce more severe symptoms when frigid temperatures lower immunity. According to Dr. Eccles, "If they become chilled this causes a pronounced constriction of the blood vessels in the nose and shuts off the warm blood that supplies the white cells that fight infection. The reduced defenses in the nose allow the virus to get stronger and common cold symptoms develop. Although the chilled subject believes they have `caught a cold' what has in fact happened is that the dormant infection has taken hold." (The need to stay warm is something I have been speaking of for years! Which brings on a corollary: fever - i.e., a very warm body - facilitates the destruction of virus and bacteria; however, it can also cause mental dysfunction - among other symptoms - if it causes the body temperature to rise too far or stay up for too long - thus, the necessary use of antipyretics.)

There are at least 200 known viruses that cause colds. Now how do you immunize for that? (I think, by following two time Nobel Laureate Linus Pauling's theory: the vitamin's versatility in illness prevention arises from its role in the manufacture of collagen, the protein that gives shape to connective tissues and strength to skin and blood vessels. An assertion: it may also create a more acidic therefore resistant, body environment, inhospitable to viruses. Indian medicine suggests chewing up a clove of fresh raw garlic - not easy; its chemical components may facilitate blood flow, therefore giving better access to white blood cells for ready viral destruction! Elderberry is another promising remedy, especially if taken throughout the season).

Dr. Kazunari Satomura, a professor of medicine and epidemiology at Kyoto University says that daily gargling with plain water appears to fend off colds among healthy people, but an American scientist finds the news hard to swallow. (Personally, based on Indian health practice, I would use a solution of warm salt water)

According to the US NIH, seasonal changes in relative humidity also may affect the prevalence of colds. The most common cold-causing viruses survive better when humidity is low - usually during the colder months of the year. Cold weather also may make the inside lining of your nose drier and more vulnerable to viral infection. Staying hydrated can help prevent infection from taking hold in the first place.When you're dehydrated, tiny cracks form in your nasal membranes in which virus-filled droplets take up residence and promote infection. Recommended daily water intakes are 2.2 liters (nine cups) for women and three liters (13 cups) for men. Drinking fruit juice, milk, soft drinks, even tea and coffee also contributes to daily water requirements. (As Dadi put it: pani peyo pishi karo!)

A recent study from the University of Nebraska Medical Center suggests that good old-fashioned chicken soup has anti-inflammatory powers that could ease a sore throat and also may prevent congestion in the lungs. Even in diluted amounts, chicken soup inhibits the ability of certain white blood cells to participate in the body's inflammatory response, which is involved in some cold symptoms, such as irritated airways and phlegm production.