Notes From A Bear's Journey

Paris Observations       Let me start by saying the I've never been to Paris before; well, let's say that I've landed in Paris and continued on through Paris (well, Charles De Gaulle airport, anyway), but actually visiting and staying in Paris...never.  But suddenly here we were, our jet lagged bodies now back at CDG airport and we had what amounted to a free day, well, just under a day to explore this famous City of Lights.  A quick nap and off we went.  Now I must add that when you tell anyone, but especially someone who lives and works in Paris, that you have only about 8 or so hours to see the city, you will get a look first of "really?," followed by a resigned but determined effort to get you started as soon as possible.  Why? Because as everyone knows, there is much to see in Paris.         Now if you've never been to Paris, as was the case with us, just getting IN to the city is quite the adventure.  As with New Y...

Why, the Nerve     The saying above originally had a bit more of a twang, a relic of the Roaring 20s and later; it became a phrase that was taken as something small, or something large, an insult or a backsided compliment.  But it's a strange idiom, that is, a word with many meanings.  You can lose your nerve or have nerves of steel, be a bundle of nerves or hit a nerve.  All of these reflect back to emotions, indicating bravery or hesitancy.  But medically, when an actual nerve is involved, there is little bravado.  A pinched nerve in any portion of the body can bring down the strongest person.  Block the nerve and you have numbness or a lack of feeling (think of getting your cavities filled at the dentist); sever the nerve and you likely have paralysis.    This from the book, Adventures in Being Human , by Dr. Gavin Francis (and you'll have to temporarily forgive the extended quotation format but as I begin my vacation travels...

Bang, Bang     Guns.  It's time we talked about them without walking around as if we're stepping on glass.  Rather than being a taboo subject, the reality is that guns are everywhere; and here in the U.S., everywhere means virtually every single home (as of the latest count, estimated gun ownership was enough for roughly one gun in every home).  As of a few years ago, the number of people being killed every day due to guns (8 of them children) was averaging 360...and obtaining a gun in the U.S. is as easy as attending a gun show (a regular event in the U.S.) or answering an ad;  in many cases, there's no need for a name or an address, just hand over the cash and get your gun...or rifle...or assault weapon.  Registering your weapon?  In the U.S., there are indeed some background checks due to such laws as the Brady Law but they are very limited*, and once again, efforts to expand their influence have been defeated by Congress (no new gun law...

Shrimp     Who doesn't like shrimp?  Okay, so as with some other foods, shrimp is one food I stopped eating decades ago.  Yes, it tastes good (Americans devoured over a billion pounds of shrimp last year --again-- or about 4 pounds per person, making the U.S. the largest importer of shrimp worldwide), but I simply couldn't get past the methods used for farm-raising them...and, like much of our chicken production, shrimp regulations are virtually nil (did I mention that they're bottom feeders so that whatever settles at the bottom --from agricultural chemicals to uneaten antibiotics-- are gobbled up by the shrimp, and later by you).  All right, I'm being a bit harsh here, for that decision is mine alone and many, many of my friends absolutely love to eat shrimp...and then there's also the people (brave people, I might add) out there harvesting the wild shimp.     Turns out that when the ocean water is at its roughest (high waves and stormy...

Seeds of Change     There was some disturbing news the other night and it had to do with the war in Syria.  Despite the difficulty of trying to sort out the politics, one thing is certain and that is that we are losing priceless artifacts that are centuries old.  Destroying temples are one thing, but now the crisis is reaching a point where the future of the world could be even more affected...the seed bank.      Some of this I had covered in an earlier post on seed and crop domination.  But some decades ago, a few countries and scientists had the foresight to not only seek to preserve our ancient food heritage, but to build a facility far out of reach of most...away from wars, rising seas, and errant travelers.  And now, the Svalbard Global Seed Vault deep in the Arctic Circle holds 860,000 varieties of seeds.  But for the first time, seeds are leaving the vault instead of going in...the war in Syria has reached its hand...

    The first name you may not recognize, at least in the common world.  What about this name: Auguste Deter?  Don't worry if neither of them sound familiar, the latter name being the first recognized patient, and the first being that of her doctor.  As a patient, Auguste Deter was delusional, forgetful, her short term memory basically diminished to minutes.  But it was her doctor, Dr. Alois Alzheimer, who later looked at his patient's brain after she had died, and found the plaques so common in today's diagnoses of the condition.     The statistics are shocking.  Within 35 years, an estimated 150 million people will have the condition...40 million have it now.  This was presented in a TED talk by scientist Samuel Cohen : If you're hoping to live to be 85 or older, your chance of getting Alzheimer's will be almost one in two.  In other words, odds are you'll spend your golden years either suffering from Alzheimer'...

Finding, You...Part II     Listen to this opening: There is no beginning, and there is no end.  The sun rises, and falls, each day, and the seasons come and go.  The days, months, and years alternate through sunshine, rain, hail, wind, snow, and frost.  The leaves fall each autumn and burst forth again each spring.  The earth spins through the vastness of space.  The grass comes and gores with the warmth of the sun.  The farms and the flocks endure, bigger than the life of a single person.  We are born, live our working lives, and die, passing like the oak leaves that blow across our land in the winter.  We are each tiny parts of something enduring, something that feels solid, real, and true.  Our farming way of life has roots deeper than five thousand years into the soil of this landscape.     The words are from James Rebanks, author of his new book, The Shepherd's Life (and the book's reception is surprising t...