Out of your mind, not out of your body

http://www.economist.com/science/displaystory.cfm?story_id=9682520

Reading Report 30

Title: Out of your mind, not out of your body
Source: http://www.economist.com/science/displaystory.cfm?story_id=9682520
Date: Aug 23rd 2007

Vocabulary:
Rang out: sound loudly
Concur: To be of the same opinion; agree
Fodder: A consumable, often inferior item or resource that is in demand and usually abundant supply
Rambling: Lengthy and digressive
Dusky: Characterized by little or inadequate light; shadowy
Tenured: appointed for life and not subject to dismissal except for a grave crime
Gyrus: Any of the prominent, rounded, elevated convolutions on the surfaces of the cerebral hemispheres.
Prodded: An incitement; a stimulus
Vault: a strongroom or compartment (often made of steel) for safekeeping of valuables

Summary:
Scientists agreed on the fact that consciousness is a biological thing. According to their researches on the topic, a pair of scientists, have found that consciousness can be inducted by delivering a special amount of electricity to the body. Moreover, it can also be triggered by using virtual reality googles, by which the person being studied has a positive response. This response is measured by the amounts of sweating when they feel threatened in one way or another.


Personal Reaction:
Astral projection is mentioned here, but is not taken into account when they discuss the topic of consciousness. Anyway, I find it interesting to think about the possibility of being in many places at the same time. Not everybody I talk to in relation to this state of consciousness can say that they have had at some point some experience like this. However, there are a few, who agree with me in the fact of having felt at one point as id they were out of their bodies.
In my particular case, it has happened to me that one of my former students asked me why I hadn’t greet her in a restaurant where she was having lunch with her family, and when I answered that I wasn’t there, she started describing my clothes and my hair style. Everything matched with the look I had that day at that particular moment...but I wasn’t there. In my opinion, this is more related to astrology that to any other serious science, and at this point, I believe that we unconsciously ‘travel’ to some other place either when we are extremely sad, or when we feel threatened. This is done, as if our sub-consciousness would be running away in order to protect our soul. If this is true or not, I don’t know, but it’s interesting to learn that some studies are being done in order to explain some weird facts which can affect our daily lives.

Sex, shopping and thinking pink

http://www.economist.com/science/displaystory.cfm?story_id=9682588

Reading Report 29

Title: Sex, shopping and thinking pink
Source: http://www.economist.com/science/displaystory.cfm?story_id=9682588
Date: Aug 23rd 2007

Vocabulary:
Bargain: An agreement between parties fixing obligations that each promises to carry out.
Gathering: The collecting of food that grows wild, such as berries, roots, and grains
Merry: Full of high-spirited gaiety; jolly
Stalls: A booth, cubicle, or stand used by a vendor, as at a market
Deviation: Statistics The difference, especially the absolute difference, between one number in a set and the mean of the set
Hues: The property of colors by which they can be perceived as ranging from red through yellow, green, and blue, as determined by the dominant wavelength of the light
Binary: Characterized by or consisting of two parts or components; twofold
Pliable: Easily influenced, persuaded, or swayed; tractable

Summary:
Based on similar studies conducted by two different groups of researchers, it has been proved that women are better at remembering special places than men. These discoverings were based in both genders ancestral capacities to hunt and to gather food. When women are specially gifted about remembering food stalls, men are more practical in remembering the way to go to some place or another.

Personal Reaction:
It’s interesting to see how great scientists spend money and time, to say the least, in doing research about frugal things. Instead of being using the resources in finding the cure for a mass-killer disease, they waste everything trying to solve the mystery of Who is quicker in finding food?. Come on, we need greater things to be done, how can you burn money and human resources on such stupid issues!

Is the good life killing you?

http://women.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/women/the_way_we_live/article2287520.ece

Reading Report 28

Title: Is the good life killing you?
Source: http://women.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/women/the_way_we_live/article2287520.ece
Date: August 26, 2007

Vocabulary:
Booze: to drink alcohol, esp. to excess
Sloth: habitual disinclination to exertion; indolence; laziness
Womb: the uterus of the human female and certain higher mammals
Lavish: using or giving in great amounts; prodigal
Gooey: like or covered with goo; sticky; viscid
Foodie: a person keenly interested in food, esp. in eating or cooking
Scoff: an expression of mockery, derision, doubt, or derisive scorn
Tipple: to drink (intoxicating liquor), esp. repeatedly, in small quantities
Teetotallers: One who abstains completely from alcoholic beverages
Chute: an inclined channel, as a trough, tube, or shaft, for conveying water, grain, coal, etc., to a lower level.
Smear: to spread or daub (an oily, greasy, viscous, or wet substance) on or over something


Summary:
This article is a detailed description of all the things we may do every day which are potentially dangerous for our health.
It starts with a close relationship between food, obesity and cancer, then goes on with alcohol, sloth, sun, and sex. The more you do in your life, the higher your possibilities to suffer from many types of cancer.

Personal Reaction:
My personal reaction might be explained in many words. However, I was so upset for such pesimistic point of view, that I really wanted to kill the writer.
If we had to take into account every single thing which is mentioned here, my friends and me should be dead by now. Come on! We might die even while walking, and this doesn’t mean that we are not going to walk anymore. We might slip in our bathtub and die of five shots in our head, but this doesn’t mean that we are not going to take a bath anymore. I really hate this type of articles, as well as those e-mailing chains warning us about all the dreadful things we might suffer if we just decide to live our lives.
At the moment, I prefer not to write anymore, just in case I suffer from a finger cancer for typing too much.

The maladies of affluence

http://www.economist.com/world/international/displaystory.cfm?story_id=9616897

Reading Report 27

Title: The maladies of affluence
Source: http://www.economist.com/world/international/displaystory.cfm?story_id=9616897
Date: Aug 9th 2007

Vocabulary:
Maladies: any disorder or disease of the body, esp. one that is chronic or deepseated
Heapes: A group of things placed or thrown, one on top of the other
Lurid: gruesome; horrible; revolting
Ailments: A physical or mental disorder, especially a mild illness
Bears down: to press or weigh down
Endowment: Funds or property donated to an institution, individual, or group as a source of income
Levelled off: to become stable; reach a constant or limit
Swiggers: to drink heartily or greedily
Inoculate: to implant (a disease agent or antigen) in a person, animal, or plant to produce a disease for study or to stimulate disease resistance

Summary:
Since the 1600s rich countries have been infecting poor ones. From the times of colonisation, poor countries have been suffering from different diseases which were brought by people coming from richer environments.
Chronic diseases kill more people than infectious ones. The heart attack death rate is one example. More people die from heart attacks than some other infectious diseases like HIV/AIDS and malaria put together. However for the last decades, the average life expectancy has been raised from 50 to 65 years of age due to the health care programmes and investments.

Personal Reaction:
I think that in our rushing times we are more likely to have an unhealthy diet. We are becoming accustomed to eating more junk food and faster than ever. We are not taking care of our long term health, which means that we don’t care much about suffering from aheart disease down the line.
I believe that it’s not just a matter of blaming others for our own faults. In other words, I partly agree with the article. It’s true that in the early stages of colonialisation, the newcomers brought many diseases with them which were not part of our systems, but, I don’t think that they can still be blamed for the bad choices we make in our eating habits.
Heart diseases are not taken seriously. The bad part is that it is a silent killer. Most of the people suffering from disbalance in their bodies, don’t realize about it until it is too late. The same happens with diabetes. Diabetic patients don’t know that they suffer from it until they have to follow a strict treatment to manage their problems. Even when they know about it, they seem to be reluctant to take special care of themselves. I know many people who suffer from diabetes, but they just seem not to care much about it. They are grown ups behaving as childs, hiding themselves to eat sweets or highly dangerous food.
Everything is a matter of attitude. In my personal case, I’m overweight, and I know that it is quite unhealthy, but whenever I’m asked for a blood test, doctor find that I’m a perfectly healthy fat girl. My levels in everything are near the lower numbers in the scales of health. That is why they are all the time asking me why is it that I don’t lose weight. The answer is as simple as painful. I hate exercising.

The Arctic - Drawing lines in melting ice

http://www.economist.com/world/international/displaystory.cfm?story_id=9660012

Reading Report 26

Title: The Arctic - Drawing lines in melting ice
Source: http://www.economist.com/world/international/displaystory.cfm?story_id=9660012
Date: Aug 16th 2007


Vocabulary:
Swathe: an enveloping bandage
Seabed: The floor of the sea or the ocean
Icebound: obstructed or shut off by ice
Foray: a quick raid, usually for the purpose of taking plunder
Cacophony: a discordant and meaningless mixture of sounds
Trodden: to set down the foot or feet in walking
Hobbled: to impede; hamper the progress of
Preclude: to prevent the presence, existence, or occurrence of; make impossible
Retorts: To reply, especially to answer in a quick, caustic, or witty manner
Tiff: a slight fit of annoyance, bad mood, or the like
Gravel: small stones and pebbles, or a mixture of these with sand
Intractability: not easily controlled or directed; not docile or manageable

Summary:
The Artic is becoming a fashionable destination for tourism. The problem comes when the different countries want to gain possession over it. It is well known the richness of this region, but thanks to the soil’s intractability, this remains safe from exploitation. Nevertheless, day by day The Artic is melting down, which would make possible for the fishing industry to go deeper, and make it a profitable area due to its many resources.


Personal Reaction:
It’s a quite sad image the one that shows a humongous greed over the planet’s virgin soil. Sometimes I cannot believe the way in which the different countries go to war over a piece of land, over its richness. Greed is a capital sin. I wonder why it has become a common disease nowadays.
Sadly enough, I believe that some day in this race of conquer, the biggest countries will end up destroying some parts of the planet for the sake of their own interests. The part that they won’t be able to set their flags on, will be destroyed to avoid someone else’s ownership. I hope the already mentioned greed doesn’t end up killing the beautiful place in which we are living.
Also by exploiting virgin soil, I think we are running out our own resources for future generations. This is closely related to the fact that these countries are drying out all their reservoirs which feed them, and they’ll only realise about the huge damage when it’s too late to revert such consequences.

Adiós to poverty, hola to consumption

http://www.economist.com/displaystory.cfm?story_id=9645142#top

Reading Report 25

Title: Adiós to poverty, hola to consumption
Source: http://www.economist.com/displaystory.cfm?story_id=9645142#top
Date: Aug 16th 2007

Vocabulary:
Winding: bending or turning; sinuous
Depots: A warehouse or storehouse
Amid: in the middle of; surrounded by; among
Grinding: To shape, sharpen, or refine with friction
Ubiquitous: existing or being everywhere, esp. at the same time; omnipresent
Ply: a unit of yarn
Plethora: overabundance; excess
Nadir: the lowest point; point of greatest adversity or despair
Remittances: The sending of money to someone at a distance
Abjured: to avoid or shun
Clawed: To scratch, dig, tear, or pull with or as if with claws


Summary:
During the last years, Latin American governments have maintained an average stability which allowed a big amount of poor people to improve their lifestyle. These people have reached a new level among social classes, broadening the circle which embraces a middle class community. Those who are now part of this middle class society are the ones who spend more money consuming goods. The sad part is that in the same way, lot of people suffered a top-down change by becoming poor. In Latin American countries the main problem resides in the incredible fragility of the economic system.


Personal Reaction:
I don’t know quite much where lays the dividing line between middle class and poor people. In my particular case, my husband has a great salary, I think. We can live our lives worrying less than others about reaching to the end of each month. If needed, we can borrow some money, knowing that we will be able to give it back in short time. We have our own house and van, which also is more than the average expected. Among the people we know, none of them being our age have neither the things we already have, nor the possibility of having them soon. In fact, even when my husband doesn’t have such positive perspective, he is free to go hunting and fishing every other weekend, or several times a year. What’s more, I can also decide going to seminars in other provinces without doubting if we would have the means or not. Of course, I agree on the aspect of living in a time of high consumerism, but if you don’t take advantage of the possibilities you may have, what’s the sense in saving forever and ever, by depriving your family and yourself of things that, urgently needed or not, provoke some kind of pleasure which is priceless.

Are We Failing Our Geniuses?

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1653653,00.html

Reading Report 24

Title: Are We Failing Our Geniuses?
Source: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1653653,00.html
Date: Thursday, Aug. 16, 2007

Vocabulary:
Stringing: to connect in or as in a line; arrange in a series or succession
Witty: possessing wit in speech or writing; amusingly clever in perception and expression
Squandering: To fail to take advantage of; lose a chance for
Tabulated: to put or arrange in a tabular, systematic, or condensed form
Battered: damaged especially by hard usage
Acuity: sharpness; acuteness; keenness
Aloof: reserved or reticent; indifferent; disinterested
Akin: Having a similar quality or character; analogous
Unbidden: Not invited, asked, or requested; unasked
Peremptory: leaving no opportunity for denial or refusal; imperative
Promontory: a prominent or protuberant part
Cliquish: associating exclusively with the members of one's own clique; clannish.
Traits: A genetically determined characteristic or condition
Pitfalls: An unapparent source of trouble or danger; a hidden hazard
Chafed: to irritate; annoy

Summary:
This article is about gifted students whose IQ tests are higher than average. It criticizes the way in which schools do not allow gifted students to skip courses. In this article, we can also find a contrast between the amounts of money spent on below standard students, and on highly gifted ones. It says that the programme “No child left behind” is actually doing a lot of harm on those who need to skip courses.
Gifted students in the U.S. have the possibility to attend a school especially created for them, in which the curriculum is divided into three levels, instead of the many courses regular schools have. Anyway, it has been argued that in this way, those students are still being isolated; they are still being treated in a different way which is not completely healthy for them.


Personal Reaction:
I’m not quite sure about the reason, but I have always felt pity on little geniuses. Maybe it’s because they are almost one hundred percent of the times living in environments in which they are not at ease. It’s as if they could never find the perfect place in which they can feel comfortable.
I remember when I was a child; I truly wanted to be different, more intelligent than the rest, to know more, and to be able to pass my courses without much studying. This wishes lasted until one day I came across with an article which described gifted children as potentially crazy people, with a great tendency towards having some kind of mental disorder.
I think that we are all different in a way or another, but being that different must be a real burden in someone’s life. It seems that there are opposite realities between those who are really smart, and those who are gifted at some sport or artistically. The first ones have a higher risk to suffer from discrimination. The last ones have greater opportunities to shine.

Too old to be Skinny

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/health/features/article2222740.ece

Reading Report 23
Name: Patricia Romano.-
Date: August, 2007.-
Title: Too old to be skinny
Source: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/health/features/article2222740.ece
Date: August 9, 2007

Vocabulary:
Piling: to accumulate or store
Skewing: To look obliquely or sideways
Onset: a beginning or start
Stigma: a mark of disgrace or infamy; a stain or reproach, as on one's reputation
Outlawed: To place under a ban; prohibit
Outright: complete or total
Emaciation: abnormal thinness caused by lack of nutrition or by disease
Ratcheting down: move by degrees in one direction only
Striving: to exert oneself vigorously; try hard
Mindset: A fixed mental attitude or disposition that predetermines a person's responses to and interpretations of situations
Emote: to show or pretend emotion
Backlash: a strong or violent reaction, as to some social or political change
Entrenched: To provide with a trench, especially for the purpose of fortifying or defending
Faze: to cause to be disturbed or disconcerted; daunt

Summary:
Anorexia has a broader target nowadays. Due to the image show in famous TV series, and worldwide known actresses, the age of women suffering from this disease has increased up to numbers never imagined before. Some women are reluctant to accept they have a problem, because the majority of the ones interviewed take such eating disorder as a way to control every aspect which is not ok in their lives. They tend to feel that by controlling their eating needs, they are good at least in something. However, it’s been scientifically proved that it’s not only a matter of low self-esteem, but also there’s a gene in some women which increases the probabilities of having an eating disorder.


Personal Reaction:
It’s incredible how influential television can be. Sometimes I surprise myself by thinking about things I wouldn’t consider if I hadn’t seen them displayed on the silly box. However, I’ve always thought, and science has proved my belief, that there’s something else than public images that contributes to eating disorders such as anorexia.
You need to have this inner tendency, this inner need to stop eating. I’ve always been really obsessed with my own perfection, but I could never stop eating per se. Of course some would laugh at this, saying that it’s quite evident, but I sustain still today, that my overweight begun by eating a lot when I was pregnant and continues nowadays due to my extremely sedentary life.
Leaving aside my physical appearance, it’s unbelievable how grown-ups can be easily influenced by popular culture. I used to think that when you are 40, your ideas are more down to earth, and your self-esteem is strengthened in a way. It’s really sad to learn about these things.
Eating disorders have always been related to teenagers and young women, especially top models. The average woman in her forties was not part of this aberration.
It seems that not only prices are rising alarmingly, but also mental diseases among older people. It’s out of this planet to learn that a 68-year-old woman suffers from anorexia. Isn’t it?