biochem final week

cuddling...

I love it!  I definitely think that physical touch is essential for a healthy happy life.  It took me years to feel that way though.  I was born two months early and kept in an incubator for the first month or so of my life.  Through childhood and early adulthood I didn't like to be touched and wondered if my birth experience was the reason for that.  Going to massage school when I was 21 helped me to understand the power of touch and what I had been missing for so many years. 

"Debunking Captivity"

I grew up near Marineland in Florida and not too far from Sea World.  Watching Dolphins jump and swim is really an amazing experience, but one that should be done only in the wild.  I don't condone keeping any wild animal in captivity.  It seems like jail to me.   Having my freedom taken away would be the worst possible thing that could happen in this life.  Honestly, I'd rather die.  I can only imagine Dolphins being kept in a tank to feel like torture to them. 

Biochemistry Week 3

I definitely think we've been living like we have more than one planet to occupy.  We treat resources like they are unlimited and rape the earth of its wealth.  We also treat life like a right, not a privilege.   Everyone is selfish with the life they are given, thinking only of what will come to pass over their lifetime, not beyond.  Long term effects of our choices are not well researched.  We would be so much better off if we looked at each choice in a more permaculture type of way.  Multiple uses for each function, thinking about the edges of interaction as the place of the most possibility, mimicking nature instead of trying to conquer it.  This is how I try to live, but I'll admit, it is difficult.  Especially in the construct that we live in as a society. 

I found the article on the sustainable use of biodiversity interesting.  Why though is it always men in suits that make these types of decisions about how to "save" a native culture.  I wish more men in suits thought about the impact of the western world on native cultures before we infiltrated them in search of oil and lumber.  I have spent a lot of time living in Indigenous societies in different parts of the world in hopes of learning what they have to teach and to help keep some of that knowledge alive.  It was always a sad endeavor watching the youth of the people whom I had traveled far and wide to learn from seeking to live the life I was running from.  The western world has brought over GMO subsidized crops, raped the land for oil and lumber and stolen their herbal secrets in order to make pharmaceutical drugs.  And the worst part is that in order to survive in their culture while it depends more and more on the American dollar, they are hired to carry out the pillage.  So, although it is good that people are looking to reinstate biological diversity in Indigenous communities, I worry that it is too little to late. 

Biochemistry week 2

Agavins - I am skeptical as whether the claim that they lower blood glucose levels is correct.  I remember when it was claimed that Agave syrup did this as well only to find that it is akin to corn syrup.  I find it hard to believe that any sweetener that has a carbohydrate constituent to it would lower glucose levels.  It seems like a way to have your cake and eat it too, literally.  I think we need to steer our tastebuds away from concentrated sweeteners in general and toward more of a 5 flavor system of balanced tastebuds and nutrition.

I found the links on cell structures interesting.  The Virus looks like it would be invasive with its tail fibers, vs the human or animal cell which look much more benign.  Bacteria also look like they behave, almost slithery and creaturelike.