Dree's Notes

As the autumn temperatures drop, sore throats and that achy feeling warn you that if you don't head the viruses off quickly, you're in for a few sick days. Basically, your immune system is warning you of an oncoming cold or flu. What can you do for prevention? I used to subscribe to various "throat sterilization" tactics to ward off a cold-weather virus. This would involve gargling saltwater, drinking a glass of scotch, or having some variety of hot tea. The success rate varied. I have since learned that alcohol, while pleasant, further weakens my immune system, and gargling saltwater helps a bit when a sore throat gets bad. Spice tea helps, but it doesn't boost my immune system quite enough. What has been working well these days involves pitting microbe against microbe, or at the very least, giving my immune system a bit of emergency-response training. The enemy of my enemy is my friend . When I feel like I'm catching something, I take a few probio...

Neuroscience explains how botox injections not only relax your face, but change the way you respond to other people's emotions. In order to empathize with the feelings of others, you unconsciously mirror another person's facial expressions, which causes your brain to register the reflected emotions. If your muscles have been paralyzed with botox, these pathways to empathy won't work. That's not to say that you'll lose all your empathy, because there are other neurological mechanisms at work, but it's something to consider if you want to try botox for social reasons. You can watch the relevant segment of The Brain series with David Eagleman on YouTube... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H6Tabh2Z5PI There are many arguments for and against getting botox, including photos of people who look either better or worse following botox treatments, and stories of people who claimed that botox either helped them or harmed them. My point is simply that if your j...

Just a few days after my interest in a utilities consumer advocate position, my 83-year-old mother called me about a problem she had with Direct Energy in Edmonton. Direct Energy promises "comfort with every call." My mother called them because they sent her cheques refunding her utilities payments. She endured a long wait on the telephone before speaking to someone. Then that someone treated her like she had her head on backwards (my mother, an immigrant, has a strong accent), promised to call her back, and didn't. After mom started getting calls from Direct Energy threatening to cut off her utilities for non-payment, she enlisted my brother's help in solving the problem. Turns out, her account number had changed because of the expiry of her competitive energy service plan, and her account had reverted to a plan with her regulated energy service provider. Mom pays by ATM, and doesn't include a payment stub anymore because the ATM is set up for accoun...

When it comes to utility shopping, I feel overwhelmed. Where to start? As a responsible energy consumer, I know that my choices matter. That's why our family upgraded the insulation in our home, and installed a more efficient furnace, water heater, and refrigerator. That's why we use new CFL (compact fluorescent) light bulbs. It should be easy to shop for a retailer of green energy, right? The list of competitive Alberta energy retailers on http://ucahelps.alberta.ca/retailers.aspx is certainly impressive. Depending on where you live in the province, you probably only have one choice for a regulated energy retailer, but there are 32 competitive energy retailers to potentially choose from! If price were your highest priority, there is a nifty cost comparison tool... just dig out a recent bill, enter your site ID from the top of the report, enter your electrical consumption by month and kilowatt hours (kWh) and your gas consumption by month and gigajoules (GJ). You...

In life, there is good pressure and bad pressure. When a new food resource becomes available, that's good pressure that drives a population upward. Conversely, scarcity and disease apply downward pressure on populations. Within any population, there will be variations that lead to the rise of one sub-group, and the fall of another. Let's use an example that lends itself to formulating an equation. We're studying change, which happens as a result of pressure, or P . No pressure means that P = 1 and any value multiplied by 1 does not change. If there is no upward or downward pressure on a population then its level of energy utilization stays the same. Completely static situations in nature are rare, but as long as the P-value hovers around 1, there will be relative stability and no obvious changes or disruptions. If Y represents our population measured by its respiration/calorie/energy use, then if P = 1 , PY = Y . Now let's say that Y  represents energy utiliz...

In this book, a mechanical engineering professor attempts to explain all of nature using a term he himself coined, the "constructal law" in which "life is movement that evolves freely, in both animate and inanimate spheres" (p. 2). Adrian Bejan sees little difference between energy flow in life and non-life. Hierarchies are good, and so are oligarchies and slavery. Forget scary projections of overpopulation, scarcity of resources and climate change, because there's a happy S-curve for every human undertaking: "Using more fuel does not mean that climate change is out of control. Humanity will adapt in order to persist, to keep on flowing, which means to live... If a new technology tends to kill us, like the trains at railroad crossings, then people invent flashing signs and build overpasses, and keep moving." (p. 145) Adrian Bejan conveniently glosses over the fact that many dominant species eventually go extinct when their environment turn...

For those looking for a quick-and-easy guide to fermenting vegetables, I have created this new post. First, a quick reminder as to WHY we are fermenting vegetables instead of say, drinking kombucha or kefir... Because good microbes live on fiber! From vegetables! At room temperature or above! So a fermented drink with processed sugar as a starter isn't really going to help your microbiome, so just enjoy it for the flavour but don't kid yourself. As for yogurt and kefir, if you make it yourself and don't refrigerate it, then you may get billions of beneficial bacteria per serving, but otherwise you will only get millions of chilled and dying microbes. And no fiber.  That is why we ferment the vegetables. Fermented vegetables are NOT vegetables that have gone bad. It is an alternative way to prepare the vegetables that generates healthy probiotics, increases the vitamin content, and preserves food through a natural process similar to pickling. Aside from vegetables a...