Taking brain pills a waste of time

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“Memory supplements” have become big business: in the US, a quarter of people over 50 are thought to take them, often believing that they help ward off dementia. But according to a new report, these people are wasting their money. Researchers from the Global Council on Brain Health looked at evidence across a range of supplements, including those containing B vitamins, vitamin D, omega-3 fatty acids, caffeine, coenzyme Q10 and ginkgo biloba. Few, they found, had been tested for their impact on brain health, and where tests had taken place, there was little clear evidence that they improve brain function or prevent dementia. The researchers said that if people are concerned about maintaining their brain health, there are far better ways, including eating healthily, taking exercise and getting enough sleep.  (The Week 13 July 2019)

Yes, eating healthily, taking exercise and getting enough sleep. These are all activities that would have been approved of by Epicurus and his disciples.  They would probably add to the diet part “strictly in moderation”.   (P.S: Epicurus famously lived on bread and water.  I think we can expand a bit on that, but moderately)

The Epicurean good life; a quotation:

”The good life for the Epicurean involves disciplining of the appetites, curtailment of desires and needs  to the absolute minimum necessary for healthy living, detachment from most of the goals and values that are most highly regarded, and withdrawal from active participation in the life of the community, in the company of a few select friends – in a word, plain living and high thinking”.  ( page 62, “Epicurus: The Art of Happiness” George K.Strodach, pub. by Penguin)

Wealth never brings you peace of mind

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“It is better for you to be free of fear and lying on a bed of straw than to own a couch of gold and a lavish table, and yet have no peace of mind”.   (Quote from “The Essential Epicurus”, by Eugene O’Connor, Great Books in Philosophy series)

The wide gulf between what companies pay their CEOs and what they pay their median worker has skyrocketed in recent years. The average CEO took home about 20 times what average workers did in 1970, compared to a ratio of 287 last year. And many corporations have gaps much larger than that.

Taking on inequality means tackling those gaps. 

The teachings of Epicurus are full of references to his disdain for those whose greed for money consumes them.  It is taken as a given that huge wealth leaves a man with no peace of mind .  A recent bill introduced in the US Congress addressing inequality will, of course, never be agreed by both political parties, but Epicurus assures us that large stores of cash seldom bring happiness.

 

Eating all your meals before 3 p.m could be good for your health

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A study suggests that eating all of your meals in a 6-hour window may prevent diabetes.

A research team at the University of Alabama tested a time-restricted diet in eight overweight men who were all on the threshold of developing type 2 diabetes.

For five weeks in the Spring of 2018 the volunteers ate identical breakfasts, lunches and dinners. Half were assigned to eat all three meals within a 6-hour period ending no later than 3pm, while the other four ate within a more typical 12-hour time frame. After five weeks, the groups swapped for a further five weeks.

The time limit led to improved sugar control. The team also saw drops in overall appetite and blood pressure (Cell Metabolism, doi.org/cpmh). These effects were not due to weight loss, since everyone ate enough to maintain their weight. Instead, eating earlier in the day may align better with circadian rhythms.

 The basic premise is that we have  evolved to be active during the day, so it makes sense for our metabolism to rev up at the beginning of the day and rev down at night to be as efficient as possible.   (New Scientist, May 2018).

Peace of mind gets a sad jolt if you are told you are pre-diabetic.  In America, if the blood test shows an A1C of 6.5 you are officially a diabetic.  So you are pre-diabetic at about 5.8.  A lot of Americans fall into this category.  But the good news is that you can reverse the A1C reading; I know, because I have done it myself ( with careful diet).  The above may be another approach.

 

Flying and vapor trails

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According to a new study, a huge amount of atmospheric warming is caused by the cloud-like vapor trails – or “contrails” – that planes leave in their wake when flying at high altitude. These are created when vaporised water condenses or freezes around sooty exhaust particles to create cirrus-type clouds. These can persist for hours, but are too thin to reflect warmth. Instead, ice crystals within them trap heat, warming the planet. Researchers from the Institute of Atmospheric Physics in Germany estimate that aircraft vapor trails typically have twice the warming impact of CO2 emissions. And as air traffic increases, the problem will only get worse. In a paper published in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, they argue that the industry cannot solely focus on aircraft fuel efficiency; they must also acknowledge and address the currently overlooked problem of contrails.  (The Week, 13 July 2019)

This raises the questions of hypocrisy, in this case my own.  I happen to live between America and Britain.  In the old days one would go by passenger ship .  The last time I did that it took 7 days and the funnel smoke belched out non-stop.  But I was young .  It was fun. Now I fly.  Every time I book a flight I am roiled in guilt and misgivings.  Here I am bemoaning climate change, which is heavily affected by planes flying in all directions, and I am very well aware of what the plane is doing every mile of its journey.   I tell myself that, were my wife and I no longer flying, it would make not the a slightest difference – the airlines would happily continue fouling the air.  But I am not practicing what I preach.  There! It is out in the open.

Do you do things you didn’t ought to?   Do you eat beef or go on fancy foreign holidays, or drive a car every day of your life?  If so, drop me a line on this blog – I need to feel better about it all.

 

The dodgy people who run people power

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There’s much talk these days about the threat to democracy posed by Kremlin-backed troll factories spreading disinformation online.   But maybe we should pay more attention to our own homegrown “astroturfers” – political operators who concoct a following to give the appearance of spontaneous grass roots support.

Looking at Facebook, for instance, you’d think frustrated pro-Brexit activism was springing up everywhere. But dig deeper and you find that seven of the most active pro-Brexit groups – including the Jacob Rees-Mogg Appreciation Group – share the same administrator: a suspended Tory councillor called David Abbott. The same applies to avowedly non-political groups, Nuneaton Community Forum, a Facebook group supposedly catering for people in the marginal seat who want to have “a good old moan” about local matters, now appears to be run by the husband of a local Tory councillor who deletes criticism of the Tories.

People power is a powerful force in the age of digital democracy. Trouble is, it often has little to do with “the people”.  ( Xavier Greenwood,  The Week 14 Sept 2019).

How to find one’s way through the modern thicket of lies and misinformation?  Depressing.  But don’t opt out.  Use your judgment based on recent history. To opt out is irresponsible and ultimately, if everyone did it, would be deeply damaging to the country and would play into the hands of the ruthless people with autocratic tendencies and shady intentions.

Greta Thunberg

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What is it about Greta Thunberg that makes people so angry?. How can a 16-year-old in plaits, who has dedicated herself to the not unreasonable cause of saving the planet, inspire such incandescent rage? Following  her recent speech to the UN, in which she excoriated world leaders for their lack of action, her critics were at it again. One commentator likened her to a figure in a Nazi propaganda poster; another referred to her as “mentally ill”. Of course, no one likes being made to feel bad about their life choices: it’s why we sneer at vegans and feel suspicious of people who don’t drink at parties. But mainly, her critics attack her because it’s far easier than discrediting her argument. 

Everything Thunberg says is true.  We have just 11 years to prevent irreversible climate change, yet the grown-ups are not treating this as an emergency. It has been left to a child to deliver the warning our leaders are too afraid to voice, which is that “it is impossible to fight climate change and continue to measure national success by the rate of growth”.  

We need to tackle climate change. But  how would people react if politicians imposed the radical changes she insists are necessary, halting economic growth? Some might willingly sacrifice their modern comforts, but persuading the majority, in the time available, will be a very hard task. In that respect, Thunberg’s “hellfire and damnation” language risks being unhelpful. It may “frighten or alienate more than it energises”. And lumping all politicians together as “useless and uncaring is wrong”: you can see why President Macron, whose attempt to hike fuel taxes helped trigger the gilets jaunes protests, is feeling sore about being told “How dare you?”. Like other liberal politicians, Macron thinks of himself as on the side of the angels.   But Thunberg isn’t having that: she knows “we tried” is not going to satisfy future generations. For her, it’s us and them – and until he adopts her cause in full, he’s one of them.  (Jennifer O’Connell, The Irish Times).

My comment:  Greta Thunberg can say these things, these absolutely correct things, because her personality is such that she has an urge to tell the unvarnished truth, and maybe doesn’t care about “offending” the thugs who attack her.  She will be remembered as a latter-day prophet.

The sea level has visibly risen year by year in the Florida keys, for instance. There have been several consecutive days when  the high tide has covered the nearby jetty completely.  The width of the beach has shrunk. The locals call this a “ King tide” and infer, or hope, that it is a just a short- term quirk of nature.  I very much doubt it.  But then my opinions are irrelevant – I will not be here to witness the end catastrophe.  We are talking to our neighbors about installing solar panels, but otherwise what am I doing about it? Aside from wringing my hands, but still flying.  And you?

When God lost our planet – a poem

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Each day unfurled, Another world!

God sits up there and gently nurses

Spanking, brand new universes.

 

Purblinding flash!

Oh, boom, oh, crash!

A zillion atoms spun in space.

Where did they fly? Some place, some place.

 

For thirteen billion years, we’re told,

Did God his galaxies unfold

With neutron stars and cosmic rays.

Thus did God spend timeless days.

 

For goodness sake,

One needs a break.

Even those with mighty power

Like to relax for half an hour.

 

He thinks a thought!

Just what he sought

To liven up the daily grind – –

He has a unique scheme in mind!

 

Aha! Ambition!

Matchless mission – –

A scheme to create a race of men

With ethics and with acumen!

 

Experiment 

Was his intent.

“I’ll pick a rock of random worth, 

And, ah! I ‘ll call the planet “Earth”!


“And at its birth

I’ll make this Earth

As beauteous as an April sonnet

And place my new creations on it.”

 

“They’ll look like me

Be good like me.

And every man will love his wife,

And thank me for his daily life!”

 

And so it was, and in a trice

God created paradise,

And placed in it a married pair,

A test to see how they would fare.

 

But space expands 

If left unplanned.

A planet whirls away in space,

And nothing’s left to fill the space.

 

Space grew too vast,

And God at last,

Taking years to get around,

Discovered Earth could not be found.

 

Thus men are left

On Earth, bereft,

Without a God to tell them “nay”,

Lost amidst the Milky Way.

 

It’s rather rare

To sit up there,

And even in ten billion years,

To lose a planet in the spheres.

 

“Oh, huge mistake

For me to make!

Where is that H2O and granite?

Where is my chosen little planet?

 

“Oh! Fractured hope!

How will they cope,

Lost in the vast ethereal sphere

Gripped by suspicion, greed and fear?

 

“Oh, doom, oh, gloom.

Not I? Then whom?

Who will be there to keep them moral,

To teach them how to love, not quarrel?

 

God searches here,

He searches there,

On moons, black dwarfs, dark energy,

But not a human could He see.

 

“Ah! Infinitesimal speck!

Hey, what the heck?

If men on Earth possess a flaw

Forget it!  I’ll just make some more.

 

And thus time passed

Until at last,

While rambling through a group of stars,

Why, Earth appeared, alongside Mars.

 

Ah! Eureka!

Planet seeker!

He cried, “Aha, that’s where they’ve gone!

Let’s see how they are getting on.”

 

Amazed, He found his two creations

Had spawned a multitude of nations.

No one thought or spoke the same,

Or, if in the wrong, would take the blame.

 

“Jehovah! Lord!

(With one accord!)

We’re glad you’ve come as prophesied!

We thought we’d see you when we died”.

 

So saying, men

Proceeded then

To pepper God like proper pests

With thousands of inane requests.

 

Most were self-seeking,

Falsehood-reeking,

“Bless me, Lord, and kindly strike

And punish those whom I dislike”.

 

“Oh, God, to whom we genuflect

Mine’s by far the holiest sect.

We praise you more, and they are weird.

What’s more, we wear a longer beard”.

 

 And God was pained

When people claimed

 He’d picked upon a chosen few

And helped them win a war or two.

 

And God above

Said “Where is love?

I should have been around to ground ’em,

I rather wish I’d never found ’em.”

….…………………………………………..

 

Road safety, or lack of it

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Since 2010 the number of pedestrians killed by cars in Europe and US has steadily
increased every year, in the States by 41% in the ten years between 2008 and 2018.
It is more dangerous, per kilometer of travel, to be a pedestrian than to be a driver or passenger in a vehicle. Worldwide, more than 700 pedestrians die every day, and 4 times that number are injured. But the worst country for these deaths in the US.

More Americans are driving than ever, living in cities or out in the urban sprawl, where high-volume, high speed roads exist, near where most people live. The trend is to push up the speed limits, and to design roads to accommodate speeding, the free flow of trafffic being regarded as a public good, despite the deaths speed brings. People feel “safe” in an SUV, and you can see these SUVs, disastrous if they hit a pedestrian, exceeding the speed limit.  Pedestrians are regarded as necessary nuisances, ignored by planners (I was astonished when I cam to the US at the lack of sidewalks in so many places.

We need to slow the traffic, recognise the fact that there are human beings called pedestrians, make drivers more aware of other vehicles, and have hefty fines for using cellphones while driving.

I think it is Epicurean to walk wherever possible and whenever you have the time,  IIt is good for your health, despite the fumes,  gives you thinking time, and is better for the environment.  But keep an eye open for those ubiquitous texters!

A quote from Epicurus:

“Live your life without attracting attention”

 

Even electric cars are pulluting

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Even if every car on the road was electric, it wouldn’t solve the problem of urban air pollution – because exhausts aren’t the only source of vehicular emissions. According to a new government report, over half of the air pollution attributed to road transport comes from brakes and tires. Each time a car is driven, its brakes throw up tiny particles of iron and its tires shed fragments of plastic; other particles come off the road surface. These enter the airstream, where they pose a threat to human health; the micro-plastics from tires can also enter waterways via the sewers. (According to a study commissioned by Friends of the Earth last year, tires are the biggest single source of micro-plastic pollution in lakes, rivers, and oceans.)

Now, the Government’s Air Quality Expert Group has warned that at this rate, non-exhaust emissions could account for 10% of all PM2.5 matter by 2030. It says more needs to be done to get people out of cars, and to encourage drivers to lower their speeds, and reduce their braking.  (The Week 20 July 2019)

Today I am visiting my GP.  To walk to his office would take an hour and a half both ways.  So I will go have to go by car.  But for anything local my wife and I walk everywhere.  The downside of this is that in America the car is King.  Local governments don’t care a whit about pedestrians.

Our local government is currently proposing to allow up to 10,000 scooters on the road, (which often means the sidewalk, where they are allowed in the suburbs) and  dumped after use. Meanwhile, there is one crossing near our house with a clear HALT! sign, ignored by an estimated 6 out of 10 car drivers, who barrel through.  But I will re-visit the issue of dangerous driving and pedestrian deaths tomorrow.

A sad Epicurean event

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There really are two Epicurean gardens in Greece, one in Athens and the other in Thessalonica.   I quote: The “Garden of Thessaloniki” was launched in November 2007 as a voluntary, participatory, informal  company of friends and fans of the teachings of Epicurus. Since then there have been countless meetings and open events, participations in national meetings and Panhellenic Symposia of Epicurean philosophy.

“The objectives of the “Garden of Thessaloniki” include

“a) the dissemination and the cultivation of the teachings of Epicurus.

“b) the highlighting of the importance of Greek Culture as a timeless, global, civilizing an enlightening factor for all mankind

”c) the study of the presence of Epicurean philosophy and Greek Culture in the continuous course of Hellenism in different historical phases.

“The activities of the “Garden of Thessaloniki” include:

“a) organized discussions among friends on a regular basis, with a predetermined subject and always in respect to the Epicurean philosophy,

”b) public events among friends, in which invited speakers develop relevant issues,

“c) social gatherings among friends and invited people in order to develop mutual ties, and to preserve and revitalize  The language, customs, mythology, history, and culture, etc.) of the whole (ancient and later) Greek Culture.”

An inspiring undertaking.  Unfortunately, the Garden was joined by a vocal group of people who were not in the least interested in Epicurus or philosophy.  They appear to have deliberately set out to disrupt the conversations, espousing what one Epicurean who attended described as Marxist political ideology. They asserted that there *should* be political Epicureans, invoking Marx and twisting the words of Epicurus to match that of the Platonists & Stoics.  They talked over the others in a rude and intolerant manner, demanding that the group should be “trying to save the World” and, when it was pointed out the Epicureanism is a study of nature, human and natural, not party politics, they were accused of “being against little children”.

The upshot of this invasion is that the Epicurean group has been bullied into disbanding.

One could argue that there should have been clear rules and a chairperson able , politely, to get rid of the intruders and persuade them to start their own group, if they wished.  However, this seems to me to be a sign of the times everywhere, not just Greece.  Bullies, right-wing thugs , extreme nationalists, and race-baiters are emerging all over the place, their politics crude and their ideas just about as distant from Epicureanism as you can get.  This is a wake- up call for good, thoughtful people to be wary and ready to defend themselves and their ideas.  

Epicureanism

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Epicureanism: the chief beliefs, not necessarily in order of importance:

  • equality of treatment and opportunity suggested by the actions of early Epicureans
  • courtesy to all, rich and poor, child and mother
  • politeness and consideration
  • tolerance
  • rejection of superstition, organised religion, man-made gods and “eternal suffering”.
  • compassion for immigrants, the oppressed and the sick
  • refusal to be fearful of death.
  • the power of friendship for the sake of friendship.
  • the importance of education that broadens the mind.
  • the ability to enter discussions with those who disagree with you, and put your points quietly. with a smile and without the current anger and foul language.
  • impatience and non- involvement with party politics maybe, but a belief that government should be for all the people, regardless of income and status and that oligarchy – or rule by rich cliques – should never prevail.
  • an interest in sciences and the physical universe (Epicurus was an atomist, and, along with Democritus, one of the ancient fathers of modern physics

Yes, you might have noticed that some of the above simply describe a “lady” or a “gentleman”.  Some say that these are outdated concepts.  If so, so much the worse for them and our modern world

(References include “The Epicurean Option”, by Professor Dane R. Gordon, professor of Philosophy, Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester NY)

A brilliant Epicurean put-down

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Multimillionaire Donny Deutsch on Medicare For All:

“[My parents] worked really hard to put me in a position where
I can buy the kind of insurance I want… If I can’t buy it for
my children, we are going backwards. We’re fucking Denmark.”

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….

To: Donny Deutsch
From: Djaffar Shalchi, Danish millionaire and founder, Human Act

Re: “F***ing Denmark”

Dear Mr. Deutsch,

I noticed with interest your comments regarding healthcare and wealth on Bill Maher’s show last week. It’s not often that my home country of “f***ing Denmark” gets compared to the United States, let alone so colorfully.   You said: “My grandfather was a cop, ok. My mother was a school teacher and they worked really hard to put me in a position where I can buy the kind of insurance I want . . . If I can’t buy it for my children, we are going backwards. We’re f***ing Denmark.”

Let’s set aside your choice to highlight the modest careers of your grandfather and your mother, while neglecting to mention your father’s success as the founder of a large advertising agency. I’m sure it was not your intention to misrepresent the privilege into which you were born. And good for you for appreciating how your takeover of your father’s business at age 32 (20 years after he founded it) did indeed put you in a position to buy the best insurance available. It is important, isn’t it, to give credit where credit is due.

Unfortunately, not everyone is born into such privilege. Forgive me if I misunderstood, but I interpreted your comments to suggest that you believe the unfortunate souls who were not “put,’ as you were, “in a position” are not entitled to quality health care coverage. I disagree with that notion, but luckily for you, the way that the United States has chosen to structure its health care system guarantees they will not receive it. Problem solved!

Now, back to “f***ing Denmark.” Given your comments, I can only believe that you have never set foot in my wonderful country, and are perhaps misinformed about our healthcare system. Please allow me to enlighten you.

In f***ing Denmark, we spend almost half as much per capita on healthcare as the United States. Despite our lower levels of spending, our life expectancy is higher, our infant mortality is lower, and our overall health is much better than the United States. In f***ing Denmark, we deliver high-quality, universal healthcare to each and every citizen, unlike the United States, which offers a for profit “consumer choice” system that leaves millions of your people “choosing” to be uninsured and hundreds of thousands of others “choosing” to be both insured and bankrupt.

You say that your family worked hard to put you in your position — so did mine. I was born in Iran in 1961. My family moved to f***ing Denmark when I was a child, after a series of rejected immigration applications, forced separations, and the turmoil in my birth country pushed my family to our limits. I finished my education here, married a beautiful Danish girl and had two amazing children, and built my fortune as a self-employed entrepreneur. I am now a multi-millionaire like you!

While your good fortune began with your father’s success, I credit my good fortune to f***ing Denmark and its robust, inclusive social system that values equality and opportunity for everyone. Unlike the United States, my country has embraced an advanced social tax system that requires people like me to pay substantial and increasingly “progressive” levels of tax. The people of f***ing Denmark use these funds to invest in the people of f***ing Denmark. Our tax revenues give everyone health care, education and a strong social support system, among other things.

And by the way, I never worry about buying the kind of care I want for my children, because f***ing Denmark gives it to them. Perhaps that is why, when one compares our two great nations, we find that Danes are much happier than Americans, and that our social mobility is markedly better than it is in the land of the “American dream.”

But don’t take my word for it (or rely on pesky facts that prove it), instead, come to f***ing Denmark and see for yourself a happy and healthy society, funded in part by hefty taxes on millionaires like you and me.

Consider this your official invitation to visit me in f***ing Denmark.
If you are available to travel to Copenhagen from December 8–10, you will also have the chance to meet a group of American millionaires who have a very different view of things than you do. The Patriotic Millionaires will be joining me to discuss setting up a global network of millionaires who want to include everyone in the bright future ahead. Like me, they are pleased to invest in programs that help everyone — our children, our children’s children, even someone else’s children.

Mr. Deutsch, please join us. I believe you could learn a lot from our discussion. Perhaps you will even find a way to use your immense privilege and national platform to help your country become just a bit more like f***ing Denmark.

Warm regards,     Djaffar Shalchi

My comment:  moderation, treating human being decently and equally, consideration for others – all part of the Epicurean way of life.  We need more Shalchis.

A drilling rig in the South China Sea

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Industry has always had a nasty habit of plundering the natural world “before science has understood its importance”, says Chris Packham. And that’s what’s happening right now on the ocean floor. We know more about the surface of Mars than about the deep seabed. On almost every mission “scientists discover new species”. Yet with almost no debate, a secretive new industry is drawing up plans to send gigantic bulldozers into the deepest parts of the ocean to mine for metals anminerals. It’s a terrible idea. Industrial fishing and pollution have already exacted a toll on this hidden world, but this will massively increase it. Not only will it be likely to cause irreversible damage to a unique ecosystem, it will also accelerate climate change by disturbing the processes that store carbon in deep-sea sediments. Over the next year, governments will be negotiating a UN treaty that could establish safeguards for the management of international waters. Let’s hope they reach a deal to stop the deep-sea mining industry. (Chris Packham, The Guardian 22 July 2019).

Moderation is the key word in the ideas of Epicurus.  After all these centuries        the greedy, insensitive and short-sighted still pursue money, power and exploitation ( of the planet and of their fellow human beings) without pause.  Moderate  democracy, however imperfect, has been the form of government most likely to restrain the obsessive money men. But deliberate decisions are being made to ignore the greater good and pander to the money men.  Every one of us should resist this – the greatest days of the societies, in the West at least, have been when moderate democracy has been alive and well.  Alas, it is fading.  We must not give up on it.

The Sunday roast

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  “It may be a long-lived and much-cherished tradition, but cooking a Sunday roast can produce air pollution worse than that found in the world’s most toxic cities.

Researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder discovered that roasting meat and vegetables can result in dangerous airborne particles being released into your kitchen at levels more than 20 times higher than the World Health Organisation limit: 13 times higher than in central London on a congested day, and notably higher than the New Delhi average.

Conducted in a specially adapted house, the experiment was the first to use sensors able to detect the finest, and most dangerous, particulate matter, including PM2.5 particles (smaller than 2.5 micrometres across). Small enough to be inhaled deep into the lungs, PM2.5s are implicated in 29,000 premature deaths each year in the UK. Simulating a busy cooking day, such as Christmas Day, Professor Marina Vance’s team found that particles stayed at levels above the WHO maximum for more than eight hours. The solution? Open windows, turn on extractor fans and avoid using a very hot oven, because of the charring. The team also found that frying food raises pollution to dangerous levels.  (Daily Telegraph and The Week, 2 Mar 2019).

My mother used to make spectacular and tasty Yorkshire pudding, but then she was a Yorkshirewoman.  Since then, worried particularly about particulates in the air,  I have stopped eating beef and pork along with Yorkshire pudding,  and breathe only three times a minute to prevent air pollution.  (For the serious philosophers among the readers: this is a joke. Just thought I would point it out).

I am passionately concerned about the environment and the world my grandchildren will inherit.  All the same, you can’t read a news item that isn’t pointing out how bad for us everything we do is for our health and the planet.  Gets a bit depressing.  Anyway, eat more fruit.