Good thing

Jocul vietii sau Arta de a Fi

1. Vei primi un trup. Poate să îţi placă sau îl poţi detesta, însă va fi al tău pentru întreaga călătorie pe care o faci pe Pământ de această dată. Cum îl tratezi depinde numai de tine.

2. În fiecare zi vei primi o lecţie pentru că eşti înscris la cursul full time numit VIAŢĂ. Poate să îţi placă lecţia sau să o consideri irelevantă ori prostească, dar în fiecare zi o lecţie va apărea într-o formă oarecare. Ai zilnic ocazia să înveţi din aceste lecţii. Ele se vor repeta regulat, până când experiența necesară ție va fi pe deplin asimilată.

3. Nu există greşeli; există numai lecţii. Creşterea este un proces de încercare şi eroare – se numeşte experimentare. Experimentele eşuate sunt la fel de mult parte din proces ca şi cele care la un moment dat reuşesc.

4. Deseori o lecţie învăţată va apărea din nou ca recapitulare. Ea poate fi deghizată faţă de forma originală în care a fost învăţată tocmai pentru a te testa dacă ai învăţat bine.

5. Învăţarea lecţiilor nu se termină. Nu există nici o parte a vieţii care să nu conţină lecţii. Dacă mai trăieşti înseamnă că mai ai lecţii de învăţat. Câinii bătrâni poate că nu mai învaţă trucuri noi, dar oamenii bătrâni cu siguranţă mai pot învăţa lucruri noi.

6. Nu există un loc mai bun decât AICI. Când noţiunea ta despre ACOLO a devenit un AICI vei obţine imediat un alt ACOLO care, din nou, va arăta mai bine decât AICI.

7. Ceilalţi nu sunt decât nişte oglinzi pentru tine. Nu poţi să iubeşti sau să urăşti ceva la o altă persoană fără ca acel aspect să fie o parte din tine pe care o iubeşti sau o urăşti. Din nou iată o ocazie să mai înveţi încă o lecţie.

8. Ce faci cu viaţa ta este pe deplin decizia ta. Ai toate uneltele şi resursele să o modelezi aşa cum vrei. Alegerea este a ta. Alegerea este o recapitulare a lecţiilor pe care le-ai primit zilnic.

9. Ai deja toate răspunsurile. Răspunsurile la toate întrebările vieţii sunt deja în tine, tot ceea ce trebuie să faci este să te uiţi înăuntru, să asculţi şi să ai încredere. A te ruga înseamnă să ceri răspunsuri, a medita înseamnă să le asculţi.

sursa (secundara): pasiprinsuflet.wordpress.com

Few quotes on friendship & friends

“True friendship is a plant of slow growth, and must undergo and withstand the shocks of adversity before it is entitled to the appellation.”
– George Washington (1732 – 1799)

“One loyal friend is worth ten thousand relatives.”
– Euripides

“My friends are my estate.”
– Emily Dickinson

“If you judge people, you have no time to love them.”
– Mother Teresa

“Grief can take care of itself, but to get the full value of joy you must have somebody to divide it with.”
– Mark Twain

“The friendship that can cease has never been real.”
– Saint Jerome

“My best friend is the one who brings out the best in me.”
– Henry Ford

“Friendship without self interest is one of the rare and beautiful things in life.”
– James Francis Byrnes

“A friend is, as it were, a second self.
– Cicero

“Happiness is time spent with a friend and looking foward to sharing time with them again.”
– Lee Wilkinson

“When we seek to discover the best in others, we somehow bring out the best in ourselves.”
-William Arthur Ward

“Each friend represents a world in us, a world possibly not born until they arrive, and it is only by this meeting that a new world is born.”
– Anais Nin

“A friend is one who walks in when others walk out”
-Walter Winchell

“Your friend is the man who knows all about you, and still likes you.”
– Elbert Hubard

plus

Who knew?

A bit about Greece and the ‘crisis’

by PAUL KRUGMAN in The Irish Times on Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Greece is the victim of other people’s hubris

ECONOMICS : EVER SINCE Greece hit the skids, we’ve heard a lot about what’s wrong with everything Greek. Some of the accusations are true, some are false – but all of them are beside the point.

Yes, there are big failings in Greece’s economy, its politics and no doubt its society. But those failings aren’t what caused the crisis that is tearing Greece apart, and threatens to spread across Europe.

No, the origins of this disaster lie farther north, in Brussels, Frankfurt and Berlin, where officials created a deeply – perhaps fatally – flawed monetary system, then compounded the problems of that system by substituting moralising for analysis.

So, about those Greek failings: Greece does indeed have a lot of corruption and a lot of tax evasion, and the Greek government has had a habit of living beyond its means. Beyond that, Greek labour productivity is low by European standards – about 25 per cent below the European Union average. It’s worth noting, however, that labour productivity in, say, Mississippi is similarly low by US standards – and by about the same margin.

But many things you hear about Greece just aren’t true. The Greeks aren’t lazy – on the contrary, they work longer hours than almost anyone else in Europe, and much longer hours than the Germans in particular. Nor does Greece have a runaway welfare state, as conservatives like to claim; social expenditure as a percentage of GDP, the standard measure of the size of the welfare state, is substantially lower in Greece than in, say, Sweden or Germany, countries that have so far weathered the European crisis pretty well.

So how did Greece get into so much trouble? Blame the euro. Fifteen years ago, Greece was no paradise, but it wasn’t in crisis either. Unemployment was high but not catastrophic, and the nation more or less paid its way on world markets, earning enough from exports, tourism, shipping and other sources to more or less pay for its imports.

Then Greece joined the euro, and a terrible thing happened: people started believing that it was a safe place to invest. Foreign money poured into Greece, some but not all of it financing government deficits. The economy boomed, inflation rose, and Greece became increasingly uncompetitive. To be sure, the Greeks squandered much if not most of the money that came flooding in, but then so did everyone else who got caught up in the euro bubble. And then the bubble burst.

Ask yourself, why does the dollar area – also known as the United States of America – more or less work, without the kind of severe regional crises now afflicting Europe? The answer is that we have a strong central government, and the activities of this government in effect provide automatic bailouts to states that get in trouble.

Consider, for example, what would be happening to Florida right now, in the aftermath of its huge housing bubble, if the state had to come up with the money for social security and medicare out of its own suddenly reduced revenues. Luckily for Florida, Washington rather than Tallahassee is picking up the tab, which means that Florida is in effect receiving a bailout on a scale no European nation could dream of.

Or consider an older example, the savings and loan crisis of the 1980s, which was largely a Texas affair. Taxpayers ended up paying a huge sum to clean up the mess – but the vast majority of those taxpayers were in states other than Texas.

So Greece, although not without sin, is mainly in trouble thanks to the arrogance of European officials, mostly from richer countries, who convinced themselves that they could make a single currency work without a single government. And these same officials have made the situation even worse by insisting, in the teeth of the evidence, that all the currency’s troubles were caused by irresponsible behaviour on the part of those southern Europeans, and that everything would work out if only people were willing to suffer some more.

Which brings us to Sunday’s Greek election, which ended up settling nothing. The governing coalition may have managed to stay in power, although even that’s not clear. But the Greeks can’t solve this crisis anyway.

The only way the euro might – might – be saved is if the Germans and the European Central Bank realise that they’re the ones who need to change their behaviour, spending more and, yes, accepting higher inflation. If not – well, Greece will basically go down in history as the victim of other people’s hubris.

Alors on danse

The Amazing Power of the Placebo Effect

By Jamie Hale

Placebo effects have been shown in many different areas in science.  Sometimes placebo effects have been shown to mimic or even exceed effects produced by active treatments (such as therapies or medications).

The definition of placebo is an inert, inactive, fake, sham, dummy, non-therapeutic, pseudo, or spurious substance or procedure presented as a treatment for any of a number of conditions.

In general, the placebo effect can be defined as a positive effect that occurs after receiving treatment (interaction, therapy, medication), even when the treatment is inert (inactive, fake).

The placebo effect is a ubiquitous phenomenon.  We all experience some degree of the placebo effect on a regular basis.

The power of the placebo effect is illustrated in the movie classic, The Wizard Of Oz.  The wizard didn’t actually give the scarecrow a brain, the tin man a heart, and the lion courage, but they all felt better anyway (Stanovich, 2007).

It can be expected that the benefits obtained from any treatment are at least partially due to placebo effects.  “[S]ubjects typically know they are getting some kind of treatment, and so we may rarely be able to measure the actual effects of a drug by itself.  Instead, we see the effects of treatment plus placebo effects that are shaped by the subjects’ expectations.  We then compare those effects with the effects of placebo alone” (Myers and Hansen, 2002).

A common statement heard when discussing placebo effects goes something like this; it’s not real it’s the placebo effect, it’s just in your head.  This is an erroneous viewpoint.  Placebo effects often produce robust neurobiological and other physiological effects that are very real.  This fallacious assumption can be at least partly attributed to the belief that the mind and body are somehow separate.

In this video segment on YouTube, Paul Bloom, a cognitive scientist and author, talks about the mind versus the brain.  He maintains that although the mind and the brain are “one and the same,” most people intuitively “at a gut level think the mind is separate from the brain.”

According to Bloom, “The mind is a product of the brain.  The mind is what the brain does.”  Considering them separate entities may be derived from belief in dualism–that the soul is an immaterial entity separate from the body (another subject for another day).  Bloom briefly mentions substance dualism in the link provided above.

Possible mechanisms contributing to the placebo effect include:

• Suggestions and expectations
• Classical conditioning
• Anxiety reduction hypothesis

Other mechanisms are sometimes mentioned when explaining the constituents of the placebo effect, but the three mentioned above are probably the mostly widely discussed.  Of course, in many conditions they overlap and their interaction shapes the placebo effect.

The quotes below are excerpts taken from The placebo-nocebo effect: how symbols can heal and kill, an article by Fabrizio Benedetti, a professor of clinical and applied physiology at the University of Turin Medical School:

The placebo-nocebo effect represents an amazing example of how the mind-brain unit interacts with the body. Whereas placebos have to do with positive symbols that anticipate clinical benefit, nocebos are linked to negative symbols that induce expectations of clinical worsening. Positive symbols can range from empathic doctors and smiling nurses to trust-inducing complex medical machines and apparatuses.

By studying placebo and nocebo effects, today we are beginning to understand how medical symbols affect the patient’s brain or, in other words, how positive or negative psychosocial contexts can change the brain and body functioning of the patients.

Continue reading Part 2 of this series about the placebo effect

Love and other attractions (vocabulary)

From

While this list might seem a bit risqué judging from its title, it’s not as bad (or good) as you might think. Each of these 114 weird words contains the word element “phil”, from ancient Greek phileein to love, and so a ‘philia’ is a special love, affection, attraction or preference for a certain type of thing. From aerophilately – a pastime practiced by few – to zoophily – a pastime hopefully practiced by few, but unfortunately not – if you’re a logophile, you’ll love this list. Incidentally, since “zoophily” is regularly one of the Phrontistery’s top keywords, a note to any aspiring zoophilists: There’s nothing to see here! Get out! As for the rest of you, enjoy! To complement this list of philias, you may also find my list of manias to be of interest.

Word	Definition
aerophilately	collecting of air-mail stamps
ailurophilia	love of cats
ammophilous	sand-loving; preferring to dwell in sand
anemophilous	pollinated by wind
anglophilia	love or fondness for England or the English
anthophilous	loving or frequenting flowers
apodysophilia	feverish desire to undress
arctophily	study of teddy bears
astrophile	person interested in astronomy
audiophile	one who loves accurately reproduced recorded sound
belonephilia	sexual obsession with sharp objects
bibliophily	love or fondness for books or reading
canophilia	love or fondness for dogs
cartophily	the hobby of collecting cigarette cards
chasmophilous	fond of nooks, crevices and crannies
chiropterophilous	pollinated or frequented by bats
chromophilous	staining easily
chrysophilist	gold-lover
clinophilia	passion for beds
coprophilia	abnormal love or fondness for feces
cynophilist	one who loves dogs
dendrophilous	fond of trees
discophile	one who loves and studies sound recordings
electrophile	substance having an affinity for electrons or negative charge
entomophilous	adapted for pollination by insects
ergophile	one who loves work
Europhile	one who loves Europe
Francophile	one who loves France or the French
Gallophile	one who loves France or the French
geophilous	living in or near the ground
Germanophilia	love or fondness for Germany or the Germans
gerontophilia	sexual attraction towards the elderly
gynotikolobomassophile	one who nibbles on women’s earlobes
haemophilia	hereditary disease causing excesssive bleeding
halophilous	tolerant of salt or salt-water
heliophilous	preferring or attracted to the sunlight
hippophile	lover of horses
homophile	one who prefers the company of the same sex; a homosexual
hydrophilous	loving or preferring water
hygrophilous	preferring or living where there is an abundance of moisture
iconophilism	a taste for pictures and symbols
japanophilia	love or admiration for Japan or the Japanese
labeorphily	collection and study of beer bottle labels
limnophilous	living in ponds or marshes
lithophilous	living among stones
logophile	a lover of words
lygophilia	love of darkness
lyophile	easily dispersed in a suitable medium
malacophilous	pollinated by snails
myrmecophilous	having a symbiotic relationship with ants
necrophilia	unusual love or sexual attraction for corpses
negrophile	one who is sympathetic towards black people
nemophilist	one who loves the woods
neophile	one who loves novelty and trends
nitrophilous	flourishing in or preferring locations with abundant nitrogen
notaphily	collecting of bank-notes and cheques
oenophile	one who is fond of or loves wine
ombrophilous	tolerant of large amounts of rainfall
ophiophilist	snake-lover
ornithophilous	pollinated by birds
paedophilia	abnormal love or sexual attraction for children
palaeophile	antiquarian
paraphilia	any abnormal sexual attraction
peristerophily	pigeon-collecting
petrophilous	living on or thriving in rocky areas
philalethist	lover of truth
philately	study of postage stamps
philhippic	loving or admiring horses
phillumeny	collecting of matchbox labels
philocaly	love of beauty
philodemic	fond of commoners or the lower classes
philogyny	love of women
philomath	lover of learning
philonoist	one who seeks knowledge
philopornist	lover of prostitutes
philotechnical	devoted to the arts
philotherianism	love of animals
philoxenia	hospitality
photophilous	preferring or thriving in lighted conditions
phytophilous	fond of plants
pogonophile	one who loves beards
psammophile	sand-loving plant
psychrophilic	thriving in cold temperatures
retrophilia	love of things of the past
rheophile	living or thriving in running water
rhizophilous	growing or thriving on or near roots
Russophile	one who admires Russia or the Russians
sarcophilous	fond of flesh
sciophilous	thriving in or loving shady conditions
scopophilia	obtaining sexual pleasure from seeing things
Scotophilia	admiration for Scotland or the Scots
scripophily	collection of bond and share certificates
Sinophile	one who admires China or the Chinese
Slavophile	one who admires the Slavs
spermophile	member of family of seed-loving rodents
stegophilist	one who climbs buildings for sport
stigmatophilia	obsession with tattooing or branding
symphily	living together for mutual benefit
technophile	one who is fond of technology
thalassophilous	living in or fond of the sea
theophile	one who loves or is loved by God
thermophilous	preferring or thriving in high temperatures
timbrophily	love or fondness for stamps; stamp-collecting
tobaccophile	one who loves tobacco
topophilia	great love or affection for a particular place
toxophily	love of archery; archery; study of archery
tropophilous	flourishing in seasonal extremes of climate
turophile	cheese lover
typhlophile	one who is kind to the blind
xenophilia	love of foreigners
xerophily	adaptation to very dry conditions
xylophilous	fond of wood; living in or on wood
zoophilia	loving or caring for animals; bestiality
zoophily	loving or caring for animals; bestiality

 

Map

The Chubbchubbs