https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-fzz-kHfEbY
This is a video of a South Korean girl removing makeup.
I’m sure most of you would have seen this video a million times and I have to admit I’m just as bewildered as you are. I feel this video pities all Asian women for their underrated natural looks and I sympathise with them all. Why can’t the media and the general public respect and accept their natural looks? Why should there be an expectation of supermodel beauty from every woman in public? To be honest, I find the left side of their faces more approachable and attractive than their right side. Their right side seems more intimidating like they’re wearing a supermodel mask. This creates uncertainty in me whether their facial image matches their personality, voice, attitude and intelligence. I notice many people especially men look so shocked to see these women’s real image. It goes to show how today’s women in society don’t have the confidence nor the bravery to reveal their natural beauty in public. It seems they are selectively imprinting an image of what they want us to see them as rather than view their true selves under the makeup mask. Every woman around the globe somehow are trying to replicate each other or achieve their dream face with the hope of validation, positive compliments (rather sarcastically but obscured from viewers), and stacks of love hearts and thumbs up on social media. Since I’m not a woman myself hence I have no experience in slopping beauty products on my face, I had to dig out articles, websites and makeup tutorials about the different and miscellaneous makeup products almost every woman use every day. This is what most girls have in his accessory and fashion collections:
— Eyeliner
— Mascara
— Drawn eyebrows
— Lipstick
— Brushes, contours
— Smiles after using braces, gummy smiles
— Fake nails
— Nail polish (with colours e.g. red, black, pink, blue, patterns etc.)
— Lip balm
— Sunglasses
— Teeth whitener
— Coloured eye lenses
— Bleached hair colour, Ombrè
— Nose rings, nose piercings
— Tattoos
— Breast implants
— Butt implants
— Short shorts
— Ripped jeans
— Nike, Adidas, New Balance Runners (Mostly black)
— Heels (Flat, short, high)
— Dresses (Singular colour, formal) rather than casual with patterns like flowers and stars
— Double eyelid stickers
— North Face, Nike, Adidas raincoats, Caps, Bras, T-Shirts
— Beanies (Obey)
— Handbags (Michael Kors)
— Converse, G-Star Raw sneakers
— Gym pants, yoga tights
— Leather coats
— Denim jeans and coats
— Plastic surgery and liposuction on face, body and waist
— Zara, H&M, Mecca Maxima, Gucci, Georgia Armani, Victoria’s Secret, Swarowski, Calvin Klein, Tommy Hilfiger,
— Perfume (Dior, Georgio Armani, No. 5, Hugo Boss) / Deodorant / Antiperspirants
https://books.google.com.au/books?id=QQfTDQAAQBAJ&pg=PA137&lpg=PA137&dq=how+does+makeup+refract+light&source=bl&ots=do9_gDewaH&sig=EHeo1JBw5Ba_0aHDeDLHDc3PNHY&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjRvNujy9zRAhUEVbwKHb6lDJkQ6AEITzAJ#v=onepage&q=how%20does%20makeup%20refract%20light&f=false
Book review of No More Dirty Looks: The Truth about Your Beauty Products and the Ultimate Guide to Safe and Clean Cosmetics
As the size of this list above illustrates, it’s quite amazing how girls can remember what they need to write on their shopping list for that 1000 likes on a Instagram picture. If I asked you to name as many fashion brands as you can, you probably would struggle to reach 100 unless you are Google. Despite not being a girl myself, I somehow take notice of the different cosmetics, accessories, popular fashion designs and brands I listed in the brackets. This explains the dilemma of girls taking longer than usual to prepare themselves for an event, class or a dinner date and I feel sorry for the boyfriends who have to play the waiting game consistently. Why girls require numerous chemicals, accessories and various brands of the same clothing is not the only thing that got my mind boggling. Also how did the earliest humans discover the chemicals that have become the foundation of modern cosmetics and how did the development of fashion begin from animal skins to hydrocarbon polymers in today's fashion world?
Apparently we have invented 1000s upon 1000s of cosmetic products, using complex combinations of chemical ingredients. A typical cosmetic product may contain between 15 to 50 ingredients and considering the average woman uses between 9 to 15 products daily, it is estimated that women splash on over 515 individuals chemicals on their skin through makeup alone every day. If you’re reading this ladies, what chemicals do you think you are putting on your faces for that London look? For those who don’t know what a cosmetic is, defined under the Industrial Chemical (Notification and Assessment) Act 1989, "a substance or preparation intended for placement in contact with any external part of the human body including the mouth and teeth.” The purpose of cosmetics is to cleanse, perfume, protect and alter the appearance of the human body along with its odours. This is not to be confused with products that claim to modify a bodily process, or prevent, diagnose, cure or alleviate any disease, ailment or defect like Melanoma, skin cancer and sunburn. These products are called therapeutics. Here is a list of chemicals that you may or may not suspect slapping on:
(a) WATER (H2O) — It forms the basis of all bottled products including creams, lotions, makeup, deodorant, shampoos and conditioners. It acts as a solvent to dissolve accompanying ingredients and form emulsions for consistency. This type of water is NOT regular tap water, but “ultra pure” water meaning there are NO microbes, toxins and other pollutants. Thus you may see labels refer it as distilled or purified water or just aqua.
(b) EMULSIFIERS — These help keep unlike substances such as oil and water from separating like in everyday detergent. Since oil is less dense than water, meaning water molecules are more attracted to each other than to oil molecules due to their polar character forming intermolecular Hydrogen bonds, emulsifiers help change the surface tension between water and oil, producing a homogeneous and well-mixed product with an even texture. Examples include:
— Polysorbates, Laureth-4 and Potassium Cetyl Sulfate
(c) PRESERVATIVES — These help extend the shelf life and prevent the growth of microorganisms such as bacteria, fungi and moulds which can spoil the product and potentially harm the user’s skin. Since microbes live in water, preservatives have to be water-soluble. Popular preservatives include Parabens, Benzyl Alcohol, Salicylic Acid, Formaldehyde and Tetrasodium EDTA (Ethylenediaminetetra-Acetic Acid). If you’re considering purchasing ‘preservative-free’ products, just be aware of their shorter shelf life and be vigilant of any changes to their appearance, feel or odour which may give an indication the product has gone off.
(d) THICKENERS — Known as Thickening Agents, they work to give that appealing consistency. They originate from 4 different families of thickeners:
i. Lipid
= Usually a solid at room temperatures, it is liquefied and added to cosmetic emulsions. They work by imparting natural thickness to the formula. Examples: Cetyl Alchol, Stearic Acid and Carnauba Wax
ii. Naturally Derived
= Natural polymers that absorb water, causing swelling and increased viscosity of a product. Examples: Hydroxyethyl Cellulose, Guar Gum, Xanthan Gum and Gelatin
iii. Mineral
= Also natural, hence they exhibit the same effects as natural derived thickeners. However they give different results to the final emulsion than the gums. Examples: Magnesium Aluminium Silicate, Silica and Bentonite
iv. Synthetic
= Often used in lotion and cream products. The most common synthetic thickener is Carbomer, an Acrylic Acid polymer that swells when in contact with water which is used to form clear gels.
Other examples: Cetyl Palmitate and Ammonium Acryloyldimethyltaurate
(e) EMOLLIENT (MOISTURIZERS) — This softens the skin by preventing water loss. It is found in a wide range of lipsticks, lotions and cosmetics. The first use of emollient came in the form of beeswax as well as many other natural and artificial chemicals. Examples: Olive Oil, Coconut Oil, Lanolin, Petrolatum (Petroleum Jelly), Mineral Oil, Glycerine, Zinc Oxide, Butyl Stearate and Diglycol Laurate
Natural colours can originate from plants such as Beet Powder or animals like the Cochineal Insect. Meanwhile pigments can be split into 2 categories: Organic (Carbon-based molecules) and Inorganic (Metal Oxides). Organic refers to the organic chemistry most of you learn in school and it should not be confused with natural or non-synthetic or chemical-free products. Same with inorganic, it should not be confused with synthetic or artificial as most inorganic metal oxides are natural occurring compounds in the form of ores. The 2 most common organic pigments include Lakes and Toners. Lake pigments are made by a combination of a dye colour with an insoluble substance like Aluminium Hydrate which gives it its water-resistant or waterproof properties. A Toner pigment, however, doesn’t combine with any other substance. Inorganic metal oxide pigments are usually duller than organic pigments, but are more resistant to heat and light, giving colour its durability. Examples include: Iron Oxide (FeO…), Chromium Oxide, Ultramarine (Na8-10 Al6 Si6 O24 S2-4), Ammonium Manganese (III) Pyrophosphate (H4 N Mn O7 P2), Iron blue / Prussian Blue, Titanium Oxide (TiO2) & Zinc Oxide (ZnO).
(h) FRAGRANCES — You wonder why cosmetic products are compellingly aromatic to the human nose. The term used by manufacturers, fragrances, are not only found in perfumes but also in creams and lotions if you didn’t know. Because there are over possible 3000 chemicals used by scientists that fragrances are regarded as a trade secret, here’s a link below that lists these fragrant chemicals:
http://www.ifraorg.org/en-us/ingredients#sthash.gXFj7VXo.dpuf
Because cosmetics involve the use of many chemicals, there are fears from critics that they may cause more bodily harm than anticipated. Since I’m not a cosmetic chemist nor makeup critic myself, I’ve shared a link below that lists the most talked-about chemicals:
http://www.nova.org.au/people-medicine/chemistry-cosmetics
There seems to be some disagreement between historians regarding the first use of cosmetics by humans. Some argue that cosmetic body art was the earliest form of rituals, some over 100,000 years ago during the African Middle Stone Age. The discovery of red mineral pigments (red ochre) including crayons were believed to be associated with the emergence of homo sapiens in Africa. According to archeologists, the first known use of cosmetics were in ancient Greece and Egypt. Humans back then used castor oil as a protective balm and organic skin creams such as beeswax, olive oil and rosewater. The Old Testament describes 2 Kings 9:30 when Jezebel pained her eyelids at around 840 BC. Cosmetics were also used by women in ancient Rome including lead-based makeup to whiten their skin and kohl to line their eyes.
Kohl is a black powder used widely across the Middle East to darken the edges of the eyelids similar to the modern day eyeliner. During the 10th century, an early teacher named Abu al-Qasim al-Zahrawi, or Abulcasis, writer of the 24-volume medical encyclopaedia Al-Tasrif, described cosmetics as a branch of medicine called the "Medicine of Beauty”. His speciality involved perfumes, scented aromatics and incense where the earliest use of present day lipsticks and solid deodorants came in the form of perfumed sticks rolled and pressed into special moods.
Around 3000 BC, the Chinese were the first to paint their fingernails with gum arabic, gelatine, beeswax and egg white. The colours used were a representation of their social class: Chou Dynsaty (1st millennium BC) royals wore gold and silver, and later royals wore black or red. Lower classes were forbidden to wear any bright colours on their nails. If you have seen Chinese opera performances before, you would notice the full extent of makeup applied to both male and female performers. Legend has it that during the 7th day of the 1st lunar month, Princess Shouyang, daughter of Emperor Wu of Liu Song, rested under the eaves of Hanzhang Palace near the plum trees after wandering into the gardens. While she was dozing, a plum blossom drifted down onto her face, leaving a floral imprint on her forehead enhancing her beauty. This enhanced appearance impressed the court ladies so much, they began decorating their own foreheads with a delicate plum blossom design. This brought about the mythical origin of the floral fashion, MeiHua Zhuang, that originated in the Southern Dynasties (420-589) and became popular amongst ladies in the Tang (618-907) and Song (960-1275) Dynasties.
When I watched TV shows and films set in the 19th and 20th century like Bewitched, Hogan’s Heroes, The Newlywed Game, Get Smart, I Dream of Jeanie and M*A*S*H, it was amazing to observe the women in those days hardly wore any makeup and preferred to reveal their natural beauty. What contributed to its unpopularity was that it was used only by the rich and famous in the theatre industry. Face enamelling that involves applying paint to your face to give it a paler look, despite its popularity among the wealthy, had a hidden danger because of its main ingredient Arsenic. Arsenic is a metalloid found in minerals and lead alloys that is considered to be toxic for the body and dangerous for the environment. Having a face covered with makeup was indicative of a person’s wealth because makeup back in those days were not commercially available in department stores. Those who did use makeup developed their own “makeup routines” which often consisted of rouge and papier poudré, which is a powdered paper/oil blotting sheet that whitens the nose in winter and shines the cheeks in summer. Believe or not some used burnt matchsticks to darken eyelashes and Geranium and Poppy petals to stain their lips. Vaseline was also used to moisten choppy lips. By the 1880s, cosmetic deodorant was invented by a Philadelphian inventor whose name was unidentified and trademarked under the name Mum. It wasn’t until the 1920s that makeup was heavily popular by Hollywood movie stars like Theda Bara and her makeup artist Helena Rubinstein. You know that metal container that you twist to ascend and descend your lipstick, well that wasn’t invented until 1915 by Maurice Levy. Eugene Schueller, who was founder of L’Oréal, invented the modern concepts of synthetic hair dye in 1907 and sunscreen in 1936. In the period after the WW1 (World War 1), there was a boom in cosmetic surgery where plastic surgeons would be asked to change the facial configuration and social identity of their patients. Although face-lifts back then were beginning to become popular especially amongst women, it wasn’t until the 1960s when cosmetic surgery began to reduce the clear signs of ageing like wrinkles. Men did use cosmetic surgery but only when they thought it was necessary like facial disfiguration caused by physical trauma during the war.
In this modern generation in the 21st century, it seems that makeup has become the norm of a daily life amongst many women of all ages and cultures. Beauty products are now widely available online including major department stores, online retailers. The market of cosmetics is now an integral component of the world’s economy like in Japan (2nd largest), Russia (5th largest), Australia, France, USA, North & South Korea and the UK. Combined with fashion designers and popular brands, the public image of women has indeed evolved around the years and it’s looks like this aspect of a women’s weekly life is here to remain in human society. Now women across the globe especially Asians don’t have the confidence, validation and commitment to reveal the true natural beauty and convincing them otherwise is now more difficult than ever. Although still rare today and if not without controversy, but I’ve started to notice more men using makeup mainly for their cover photos, modelling careers and theatrics like Bretman Rock and Barry Humphries (Dame Edna). Because of the growing popularity of makeup tutorials on Youtube and Instagram, I have mixed opinions on whether cosmetics suits a man’s personality and improves a man’s appearance but I need further exposure to this new trend before I can make an unbiased judgement. I’m not sure if they’re aware of this, but women nowadays are putting themselves into precarious positions where the audience especially the men are expecting this false image to be their real appearance when apparently the drawn makeup mask is hiding their true identity like a superhero mask. If at the worst occasions they reveal their actual selves after beginning to date a significant other, there’s a possibility the boyfriends will lash out out of sheer shock and outrage realising what they actually saw shatters their expectations of them based on photographic evidence online. I wish that women retained the same mindset as those who lived in the previous century when makeup was not a necessity when preparing for a dance party. They shouldn’t be afraid of public opinion and criticism targeting their makeup or no-makeup public image. Those critics are expressing jealousy on how glamorous you are and the level of beauty is almost unreachable for them. Beauty shouldn't be defined by what you look like visually because this concept is quite subjective with everyone having their own opinions and views on what is beautiful to them. Beauty is actually found within. We are beautiful in our own way. It is a gift from our DNA. That is why it is always best to love yourself. That what makes you you.
Every day evil in the form of criminals, bombings and shootings has the ability to take away the lives of innocent strangers going about their day. Evil is not intimidated by laws, power of officials, loud demonstrations and harsh arguments online. All evil cares about is completing the mission being set out to accomplish whatever the weather. It is literally realising the quote "actions speak louder than words". On a calm Friday afternoon (19th January 2017), a male in his 20s deliberately drove into pedestrians on Bourke St and erratically doing burnouts near Flinders Street Station. 6 pedestrians including a young child were among the deceased and many others were seriously injured and psychologically traumatised and scarred for life. As usual, the response from social media and news outlets is nothing short of rapid and our feelings for the victims are no doubt quite sorrowful. Before I proceed I want to pay my condolences to the families and friends of the deceased, I’m truly sorry for your loss and I wish you lots of love. Whilst everyone are ferociously and illogically debating on the comment sections regarding the reasons for this terrible senseless act, including the person’s motive, position in society, mental condition and irrelevant links to his cultural background and on another matter, the actions of emergency and police services, I’m more concerned about matters far more sophisticated than a sole act of evil that inflicted upon the most liveable city in the world, Melbourne. Why does evil exist in human society? Why do random people have to suffer as a result of evil? How does natural selection choose which people specifically will commit crime and acts of evil?
In this day and age of serious drama and heartbreak, I wish all the superheroes from Marvel films like Superman and Batman, and all the Pokemon I caught on my 3DS weren’t fictional. It would be handy for them to assist our emergency and police authorities to ensure the protection and safety of every innocent well-behaved citizen in this society. Although we don’t personally know the deceased, we instinctively feel patronised and saddened to see them unconscious unable to move. This is our human instincts taking over our minds. When one of our species falls to its haunches, we do everything in our power to save them before we realise they are gone. When they suffer, we also suffer. We feel sad and sorrowful then frustrated, angered, anxious, hurtful and confused. Initially we ponder why fate chose to end the life of the person walking nearby instead of ourselves? Unfortunately no one can answer this question because the way chance, odds and probability functions on Earth is unpredictable no matter how mathematical and analytical we get because we illustrate everything is a possibility but not a certainty. Only the outcome that has already occurred confirms a possible event a certainty but by then we realise it’s already too late to save their life. I think that humans naturally empathise with every other human when they are suffering or experiencing the brink of death. When you are born as a human, you naturally seek to make as many connections as you can from your parents, grandparents, siblings to your peers at school in order to stimulate the hypothalamus in our brain to release Oxytocin that exerts happiness. It may be that evolution has taught us to believe that connections is one of the key factors of survival. When you’re lost, injured, abandoned, or unable to solve a problem, it is only a matter of time that someone within a crowd of anonymous people will come to your aid and then provide the necessary tools to resolve the issue you’re experiencing whether it be physical, mental, economic, academic or social. However, if they don’t have the skills to help you they will take note of your problems and will immediately bring up their connections who may have the expertise and experience to resolve your problem once and for all.
This might anger a few religious figures but I don’t believe blaming the death of someone on God’s hatred and random selection of a new victim is a plausible reason for why evil spreads terror and fear to the people around them. I feel that those who think God is the cause of everything on Earth is a fiction for anti-science groups to passionately believe in. This is what the earliest Christians want people in future generations to think as an alternative to science and logical facts. Science and technology back in those days weren’t as developed and weren’t generally accepted by society as true due to lack of understanding and the shabby apparatus early scientists had in their labs to prove the many theories of the universe. I also notice everyone is criticising Australia’s justice system as being lenient and not as intimidating as other capital punishments around the world like the death penalty by sitting on the electric chair (USA), facing the firing squad (Indonesia & China), toxic injection and hanging. It’s understandable that with a person having the adrenaline rush and motivation to inflict evil within their society, everyone will seek to eliminate the threat as soon as possible. The threat doesn’t just affect whether we will live tomorrow or not, but it also affects your mentality of whether you're feeling safe within a society expected to protect you from any danger, and the arduous processes of changing your casual lifestyle habits that follows in order take into the possibility of evil arising into account. By this stage we begin to lose trust with the authorities who we thought have the power and knowledge to remove evil from society. This may explain why we are inherently selfish and natural selection designed us as individuals to enter a competition to be the fittest without our signature of approval. I feel what evolution is telling us that our lives are the most important things to us. You, yourself are the most valuable treasure on Earth. Your life is priceless and invaluable and your experiences cannot be created then sold to social media without risk. If you feel putting a bullet to the head of an evil person or banishing any killers even if it's your own race and culture behind bars for eternity is the solution to eliminate all crime, I’m sorry to say but that only solves half the problem. In jails people don’t just rot and become unhygienic and overly smelly, but you aren’t aware of the mental affects these jails have on people, let alone our worst criminals.
I watched a video from VSauce called “Isolation - Mind Field (Episode 1)", where Michael Stevens himself risks his life to take shelter in a small room for 72 consecutive hours. Although the atmosphere within the room is not as dark and stinky as a normal jail, but the conditions of a locked door, no windows, restricted space, limited water and food supply, a toilet and a small bed form the basis of a criminal’s new home. You might say that all criminals already have a mental illness and deserved to die no matter the cause. The reality is that criminals will start to experience boredom which to you people sounds like nothing but as a matter of fact, it is the sign their mental condition much worsen if nothing is being acted upon. With no time-keeping devices, your brain will start to guess when perceiving time and it often gets it wrong. Furthermore this environment of isolation removes many of the things that helped stimulate our brain keeping it interested, alive, excited and healthy like our phones, Internet, our friends’ smiling faces and the books we read. However if all this stimulation is removed, it won’t be long before criminals start to become restless and begin to self-stimualte themselves with things they previously experienced before. It is only a matter of time before criminals will begin to run out of ideas to make their lives somewhat interesting in a terrible situation and they will begin to feel disgusted and miserable. This is a sign criminals will gradually experience brain damage and there is evidence to suggest that jail sentences make criminals worse off than they started mentally. The symptoms of anxiety, depression, hallucinations and schizophrenia will begin to exaggerate with cognitive dissonance, decreasing sense of wellbeing, loss of awareness and euphoria. All this happens after 3 days, now compound that to years or a life sentence (100+ years). Imagine what these people will be like once they do come out of prison. With every slam of the judge's hammer (gavel) on the sounding block, we waste countless opportunities to reform or cleanse a criminal’s deluded vision of fulfilling life in a society he was born in. Instead of exiling them, why not give them a second chance at life? I don’t mean release them on bail, what I really mean is to help them distinguish between right and wrong. Allow them to learn the basics of survival for themselves, let them laugh at themselves and feel shame and regret at their criminal actions, give them the wake up call they have been dreading to find. Community service in rural and jungle areas around Africa like South Africa, Kenya and Uganda are the best places to start rehabilitation and the path to reforming and polishing up their lives. Although society has rehabilitation programs and chemical treatments available to our mentally ill criminals, I don’t think they are just as effective in curing the poison that is clogging up the logical regions of their brains.
This is where I start to enter treacherous debating territory. Even though you don’t know them personally, but critically judging a criminal’s position in society based on the harmful and dangerous actions they inflicted is not adequate to label them as evil. Do you think they can abide by the rules and satisfy your expectations of how youths should progress through adolescence the same way you experienced it? The truth is no one on Earth is born evil. No one is born with the thoughts to make everyone around them suffer because babies don’t have the conscience to think. As you grow up from birth, your subconscious receives sensory information of the world around you through your eyes, mouth, ears, nose, fingertips of your hands and balls of your feet. As an innocent young child, you perceive everything your parents and peers share with you as crucial to survival and fulfilment of life. As children, you may think that everything your parents, relatives and peers share with you in the form of personal stories is right and you believe following the same pathway as your parents will guarantee you the success they achieved. However what they don’t tell you is that your parents and peers may need to kill their opponents in order to achieve their dream goals like building a financial empire, a legacy for people to remember or forcing people to share their opinions and views and then perceive them as correct without question. Most children in their youth don’t have the brain capacity and awareness to distinguish persuasion from logic which may explain the presence of food advertising in children’s TV shows. We cannot change these natural psychological processes that occur privately in the family home. Given the possible circumstances of what may come about of future adolescents, using their parents’ or peers’ personal experience as a fortune-teller for their children’s future is no guarantee that they will follow the same pathway as their ancestors and/or peers because we don’t know the limits of their sense of logic and reasoning and awareness of the situation they are entering. Only they, the children themselves, can control what they want their future to be. In reality, you are helpless but to sit back and let fate do its job.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2TyMygZ4G_s
Here is a video of featuring an American judge coincidentally recognising a burglar standing before the judge.
Everything I discuss on my blog is a realistic representation of how my mind works. It’s evident I think contrastingly to everyone else around me and I feel like I isolated myself from society. Everyone talks about money making, their partners and ex-partners, employment, clubbing, funny videos, funny memes, shopping trends and popular restaurants and cafes whilst I talk about a unheralded mixture of miscellaneous topics like psychology, the animal kingdom evolution, natural selection, neuroscience, theories of the universe, society, courting, philosophy and anthropology, vast general knowledge including facts no one bothers to remember, and trends. I feel some people think I’m too aware and conscious of the little things that occur in every day tasks and I feel this makes me unapproachable and unwanted in the friendship groups alike. Even though I’m curious and know so much about the world around me, my parents seem to label me as dumb, arrogant and stubborn because the system I’m studying under doesn’t illustrate my potential in academia. I just don’t understand their way of thinking and neither could them. I can’t comprehend how they come to a sudden conclusion that learning about the brain, Stephen Hawking’s theories of the universe and undertaking a scientifically philosophical perspective of everyday human phenomena would make people around me think that I’m dumb. That is what a depressed and anxious person like myself goes through every day.
There is always miscommunication between myself, my friends and my family. Everyone’s responses are passive, sharp, short, blunt and somewhat inconclusive without a care about indirect outcomes whilst my responses are longwinded, analytical, calm and collected, occasionally witty. If you know me personally, our Facebook and Snapchat conversations are an illustration of the different styles of speech and vocabulary. Most of my friends swear a lot, whilst I can swear in my mind I somehow was trained not to swear whatsoever and I thank (sarcastically) my mother for that. It’s like swearing has become the norm and criterion for nomination of a friendship group. Although a few of my friends are sympathetic and are willing to help me out, they fail to fully understand the situation from my perspective no matter how descriptive and emotive my story is. They also fail to come up with fruitful step-by-step solutions that I could follow in order to get myself back towards parity. I’ve been visiting a psychologist lately and I felt I was on the pathway towards a comfortable playing field. Although I had a chance to reveal my story and the possible reasons for my mental dilemma that I was trained to resist revealing to the public, along with prescribing antidepressants to keep my mental condition at bay, the solutions I was given didn’t really suit my age group to say the least. The social groups I was recommended to join consisted those who are in their 30s and 40s experiencing domestic and family violence, drug and alcohol abuse, sexual assault and financial difficulties which doesn’t match any of my problems and age group. This is pretty much my life motto.
Given my experience, age, appearance and general knowledge, I don’t feel like I could immediately fit into any friendship group, anonymous social group, or team of colleagues in any workplace. Again this feeling of alienation, isolation and dependence in this society is reinforcing suicidal thoughts within my mind. I feel that nobody around me has the knowledge nor the experience to resolve a predicament clearly affecting me mentally that I feel people like me think we have no place in society even our family. We seem to feel more negative, sense more conspiracy and less inclined to change by gradually following society’s terms and conditions hence we seem undeterred by positive, sympathetic messages from our friends and family. Even though they feel they are providing the long-lost love we are desperate to experience, in reality the love we need is more sophisticated than just those 3 words spoken unconditionally. We try to utilise the things our mentors, peers and family members have taught us that allegedly brought them ultimate success but we are rarely warned of the arduous hardships and testing challenges that may come about. During those experiences we realise that despite our best efforts fate doesn’t seem to grant the successes we thought we were destined to achieve. Those patterns of failure are lodged in our minds for eternity and we feel our efforts are meaningless, worthless and neglected by society’s authorities no matter how hard we work. We feel our position in society no longer matters, no longer seems genuine and we are overshadowed by negative self-judgements. They conclude that the best and quickest way to halt the pain and suffering of this reality is to end it all in one blow. What I’ve described to you is the thought process of a depressed person and I experienced this before. This is their reality and almost no one seems to empathise with them. They feel that speaking out will not change the course of their life because they are afraid of the traumatic life patterns they had experienced in the workplace, family home or in public. That’s why they are keeping an extremely low profile in society and most of you would not be aware of their presence because media doesn’t think their story is newsworthy. Most of them don’t even use social media the way you use it everyday. They perceive Facebook Friend or Twitter Follower as a real-life friend and they will be deeply offended and devastated when you unfriend or unfollow them. With a click of a button you have aggravated their feelings of loneliness and shattered their opportunities for new social connections. It’s only a matter of time before the person you just unfriended or unfollowed will cease to exist. I don’t blame you if you nonchalantly claim you don’t know this person but I want to alert you and make you aware of the psychological impacts of your actions on the person you cut connections with depending on their psyche. I know this because I felt this way before many times.
This is why I’m fascinated with mental illnesses and conditions like depression and anxiety. So far scientists still haven’t pinpointed the exact causes and biochemical pathways within our central nervous system is still not well understood and requires more research.
Despite all the preposterous theories and misconceptions on the causes of depression being thrown about by the ancient Greeks and Christians, the beginning of the Renaissance marked the beginning of recognition of depression as a biological disease. Scientists suspected that low levels of Serotonin, a neurotransmitter responsible for feelings of elation and happiness, was the main cause. However the size of their Hippocampus was something out of the ordinary. Those who were depressed tended to have smaller Hippocampi than those who weren’t depressed. In the human brain, the Hippocampus is part of the limbic system which plays crucial roles in memory (short-term or long-term) and in spatial memory that reinforces navigation. The causes of the reduction in size of the Hippocampus is still not well understood in the context of depression and other mental illnesses like Epilepsy and Schizophrenia but the presence of Gluco-corticoid receptors that bind to stress-related steroids may be a clue to solve the scientific mysteries of depression. Here are some studies I discovered that may hold the key breakthrough:
http://www.iflscience.com/brain/scientists-find-the-physical-source-of-depression/
http://www.health.harvard.edu/mind-and-mood/what-causes-depression
Every year about 350 million people worldwide are currently depressed and only about 50% of them are receiving treatment, let alone any treatment. Treatments include antidepressants to increase Serotonin levels and psychotherapy. That number is so large that it’s too hard for me to ignore. People seem to believe it illustrates the poor choices these people made and the depressed victims feel they deserved to experience such a life. However I see it differently. These figures illustrate how the society our ancestors built over the years is flawed from the beginning conceptually and it fails to account for those who are resistant to society’s expectations and aren’t receiving the sympathy, empathy and understanding regarding their social dilemma. Saying “get over it” or “keep your chin up” to your depressed friend will virtually make no difference to the cause. If you want to help them. help them. They are on their last haunches and sharing loving and caring messages isn’t going to cut it for them. Some of you will see this as attention-seeking but I see this as a last ditch effort to save themselves from self-imposed obliteration. But you are all entitled to your opinions and you might be on the way to unintentionally nailing down the last screw on your friend’s coffin. I know deep down regret and shame will come back to haunt you for failing to be the guardian of someone who nominated you as their last hope of ever living on this planet. The reason I'm still here breathing and typing this post is because my psychologist gave me an inspiration and a suitable platform to share the things I enjoy sharing with you all on a blog such as this. It doesn’t hurt to be the hero of someone your own species.
Whenever I hear my male friends discuss about being in the “friend zone”, they always show expressions of humiliation, low self-esteem and hopelessness. In fact I didn’t know the “friend zone” was a social dilemma from millennials alike until I researched it. According to Michael Stevens aka VSauce1, in his video "Science of the Friend Zone”, the friend zone is a social situation where a guy or girl wishes to progress from a friendship to a romantic relationship with someone they have feelings for known as limerence, but their counterpart sees the bond differently and prefers to be just friends with them. So if you hear someone being friend zoned, that means they got rejected and you may feel sympathetic for them. The term “friend zone” was coined in Season 1, Episode 6 of the popular American TV sitcom Friends called “The One with the Blackout”, with the plot written by Jeffrey Astrof and Mike Sikowitz. For those who haven’t seen this episode, one of the characters Ross, who is lovesick for Rachel, is described by his friend Joey as being “mayor of the friend zone”. The question of whether a man can ever escape the friend zone and date one of his female friends within or outside their circle of friends is still compelling not just for shipping geek couples in TV sitcoms and films like Ryan Reynolds’ Just Friends but also in popular culture too. The concept of the friend zone is described by experts as misogynistic because they say it implies an expectation for every woman to do intercourse with men whom they lack interest in, because they were being polite to them. This is regarded as the nice-guy syndrome. I always hear people say that nice guys finish last but I feel this is aimed to deter males from undertaking a polite and wise approach and commit to an aggressive and narcissistic approach. It seems that experts can’t seem to agree on a fair and correct explanation on the friend zone literally. Here’s what I see. When you see a guy trying to hit up a girl with a flirtatious pickup line or those famous 3 words with obvious intent, he is exhibiting his male human instincts to find as many compatible mates as possible in order to increase the fitness of his genes. Some of you may see this behaviour as a thirsty, dumbfounded pedophile or potential sex offender but I feel society has brainwashed you to undertake this view. The girl, on the other hand, initially will 999 times out of 1000 reject their love because they either met this man for the first time or don’t know his personality, personal profile and attitude well enough to be romantically compatible. Selectivity is embedded with their female’s DNA and they are bound to say that crude word no man wants to hear. In this modern society, we are taught to find and date one partner who we think are compatible romantically and that attempts to bond with multiple women simultaneously is often regarded as creepy, immoral, unlawful and unlovable. However I feel society’s laws and morals doesn’t respect nor take into account the human biology that allow us to demonstrate love when we’re in the mood.
Seeing a man agitated to not be single around his friends and desperate to find a romantic partner as soon as possible after his previous relationship tells me a lot about our human physiology and evolution. When asked the question by his friends within his circle, a guy would blindly reveal who he has feelings for and the reasons for it, most often their appearance because that’s the initial source he can reference from. Labelling him thirsty is unfair and demeaning to all men alike because you’re demonstrating your unawareness about the human nature of the 2 sexes. Males are born to be hunters, looking for potential mates in order to produce offspring, spreading their genes to the next generation and increasing the fitness of their family name. From about the age of 12-13, the Sertoli cells in a fertile man's testicles produces a variant number of sperm cells but the average is about 85 million every day per testicle and this number decreases as a man ages. Because men produce so much sperm, I thought their testicles would burst creating a sticky mess around him and it’ll be hilariously unfortunate if it were on female bystanders. Thankfully our testicles have a Epididymis and a Vas Deferens which helps store, reabsorb and mature sperm preparing it for ejaculation for at least 9 weeks. To all women who are curious about their man, when he is near his climax, he is bound to shoot between 2 to 5 mm of semen with each mm of sperm containing about 20 to 300 million sperm cells. That means on average a man will ejaculate a total of 80 to 300 million sperm per ejaculation. I’ll let that astronomical figure settle in your head for a moment or two. From then on the Vagina, Cervix, Uterus and Fallopian Tubes become part of the most competitive and exciting swimming race ever, more exciting than any Grand Prix race, Mario Kart race or Retro Racing Game at Galactic Circus or the cinema. Because there is no map to follow, how the sperm knows the way to the finish line i.e. the Ovum, is still not well understood but it’s possible the map instructions are embedded within their DNA. Each sperm cell swims about 0.2m per hour. This race wouldn’t be a race without major obstacles. Most defective or bad quality sperm often run out of energy hence they need a continuous source in the form of Fructose secreted in the Seminal Vesicles like the fuel to power a race car. The first barrier Spermatozoa face is the acidic pH of the vagina, followed by the immune functions that may act upon the semen. White blood cells or T-Cells may identify sperm as foreign pathogens hence they will try to eliminate as many of these sperm cells. This will leave about between 20 to 1000s of surviving sperm cells (not well known) in a photo finish for that coveted trophy in the form of an ovum. Thermotaxis and Chemotaxis guide the remaining sperm towards the egg during this final stage of this race. Once the lucky sole sperm fuses with the ovum, in the ampulla of the Fallopian Tube, the tail (Flagellum) and its outer coating disintegrate and the cortical reaction takes place, preventing the remaining unlucky sperm from fertilising the same egg and leaving them struggling and eventually dying out. You can learn more about human fertilisation via this link:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_fertilization
On the other hand, the ladies already have and will continue to produce eggs in their ovaries since birth. They will begin ovulation after their first menstrual period between the ages of 8 to 16. In the past there were hypotheses that females only had a finite supply of eggs in their lifetime because they generally stop ovulating after going through menopause before they reach their 40s. Based on this, woman in their 50s and older should not be able to ovulate eggs ready for fertilisation with awaiting sperm cells. However, in 2016, a woman in India, named Daljinder Kaur, defied the odds of human nature by naturally giving birth at the age of 70, along with a fellow countrywoman Rajo Devi Lohan who also gave birth at the age of 70 in 2006. The oldest ever woman to give birth via ovary transplant was 101 year old Italian, Anatolia Vertadella, despite the controversy surrounding her successful transplant due to European laws labelling it illegal and unlawful to do so. The youngest ever mother, back in 1939, was Peruvian Lina Medina, who gave birth to Gerardo at the age of 5. It was understood that Medina had entered into a stage rarely experienced by women called precocious puberty where hormone glands activate earlier than normal, very early after birth. I was wondering could all the information regarding the limits of female humans giving birth are all factually wrong? How far can humans stretch the limits of natural human ovulation and fertilisation? There’s a possibility woman can give birth at any age given the suitable conditions in terms of hormone concentrations and anatomy, however would these woman be able to cope with the stresses of going into labour at a young or old age? Because woman are emotional beings and have limited supply and time to ovulate, this makes them selective in terms of choosing a male counterpart to make offspring. But how do woman choose their mates? Most experts say they go for the most attractive in terms of appearance but others say they go for those who are unattainable. Because humans are multicultural with different skin colours, different personalities, different cultures, different backgrounds, different religions and different family traditions, it’s almost impossible to demonstrate a one-size-fits-all approach to choosing mates like your normal pair of socks. It’s like we have to develop a human attraction techniques for each and every tradition, culture, personality and religion which is an astronomical figure. I know it sounds impossible for any male to learn and remember specific techniques but it doesn’t mean it can’t be done.
For those of you who are crying because your crush banished you to the friend zone, don’t feel ashamed this is not the end of the world. Instead of laying on the floor feeling hopeless of finding a suitable mate, like Mr T once said in a Snickers ad "quit your jibber jabbing, you ain't hurt!" Why not take the time to use this opportunity to gather yourself up and learn from your mistakes? The fact is though a relationship is very similar to a friendship only with intimacy included:
Friendship + Intimacy = Relationship
There is nothing wrong with your attitude, character and personality, the matter of fact is those aspects of you weren’t compatible with the woman you thought you were romantically connected to. Instead of viewing it as a test of personality, restaurant geography, character and attitude, why not view the relationship as a trial to experiment your skills important for a potential parent then husband or wife? Because the aim of a relationship is to find the one who is husband or wife material not just girlfriend or boyfriend material. If you are afraid and shy to return to the relationship zone, that is fine, you have the time and freedom to learn and experiment different attributes to your personality with different types of girls without the fear of embarrassment and judgment from your mistakes, because the friend zone is a place where girls respect your effort and forgives your mistakes hence there is no harm to your friendship and dignity. Nonetheless, if you have this urge to relieve that sexual tension within you, why not go to a brothel, cast for a pornstar role or commit to a friends with benefits relationship? If you feel marriage is not your aim and prefer to live with your partner, that is also fine but you might want to negotiate with the respective parents about the possible obstacles that may arise and potentially derail your relationship before committing to this social decision. No one deserves to die single. Everyone deserves happiness in their lifetime because every human and animal on Earth will have at least a few compatible mates out in the wilderness. There are plenty of fish in the ocean, let out your best bait and you will hook up with the one that is most suited to you. Hope it goes swimmingly. I’ll discuss compatibility in romantic relationships in another post.
On the 31st July 2008, my grandfather passed away peacefully aged 73 during my family visit to Shanghai. It was one of the most tragic occasions I had ever experienced, let alone for his wife (now widow). I didn’t get a chance to be by his side and beg farewell to him when he took his final breath. The last time I saw him alive he was smiling and glad to see me. I remember he grasped my hand and told me to continue the hard work that will bring forth great successes. He claimed I had potential to live a perfect life and achieve greater things. He then handed me a red bag which contained large sums of cash. Those were his last words and his last physical contact with me. Death is inevitable for everyone of us including you and I. It is like natural selection playing Russian roulette with us all. I’m sorry to say that no matter what we do to extend our life expectancies, natural selection will, and always will, have the last laugh.
I’m sure all of you would have least experienced losing a relative, family member or a best friend and I’m truly sorry for your loss if it happened to you today. You and/or your family and friends will write a tribute post on their timeline and present a sobbing tribute speech and end it with the phrase Rest In Peace or RIP. You see this expression engraved in headstones in cemeteries too. But what does it mean to say this phrase? It comes from the Latin Requiescat in pace, meaning a short epitaph or idiomatic expression wishing eternal rest and peace to your truly beloved one. It was found inscribed in Hebrew on gravestones dating from the 1st century BC, in the graveyard of Bet Shearim. It speaks of the righteous person who passed away because they could not stand the evil surrounding them. These words were then transferred to the ancient Talmudic prayers, in a mixture of Hebrew and Aramaic of the 3rd century AD. However this phrase did not appear on tombstones before the 8th century AD. It finally became ubiquitous on the tombs of Christians in the 18th century, and for High Church Anglicans and Roman Catholics. Nowadays this phrase is conventionally used, that its absent reference to the soul led people to infer that the physical body is enjoined to lie peacefully in its grave.
Death is when all biological functions that sustain a living organism cease. They are often brought about by natural causes like ageing (senescence), cancer, disease, malnutrition, suicide, homicide, starvation, dehydration, hypothermia, accidents, trauma and predation. I know that the death of someone we love dearly or cherish on our televisions and movie screens is truly heartbreaking. We never get to hear their voice again. We never again get to observe the personality and attitude exhibited through their facial expression and body language hidden within the depths of their brains. Then our feelings take over our thought processes. We fear of sharing the same fate with them. We may feel necrophobic, anxious, sympathetic, grieved, pain in our chests, depressed or compassionate. Then we post emotional tributes with compilations of photos of them reminiscing the nostalgic memories you have spent with this person. We get into this state of mind we can not say anything but positive compliments and adjectives describing their their personality, attitude and memorable moments that made them unique and special to them.
The word death comes from the Old English deaõ, which comes from the Proto-Germanic dauthuz. This then comes from the Proto-Indo-European stem dheu- meaning “The process, act of, or condition of dying.” This is where I start to sound scientifically cryptic. The clear indications of a senesced organism are:
(a) Respiratory arrest = Your lungs fail to function and you stop breathing.
(b) Cardiac Arrest = Your heart fails to contract and blood flow to your organs, muscles and skin ceases.
(c) Pallor Mortis = Paleness or whitening of your skin in the first 15 - 120 mins after confirmed death. This is caused by cessation of capillary circulation throughout your body.
(d) Livor Mortis = Gravity settles blood in the lower portion of your dead bodies
(e) Algor Mortis = Reduced Body Temperature
If you watch CSI, you will always hear autopsy reports include the estimated time of death using rate of decline of body temperature. The Glaister Equation below illustrates this by estimating the number of hours elapsed since senescence:
(f) Rigor Mortis = After around 4 hours post mortem, your limbs stiffen making them virtually immobile or unable to be manipulated
(g) Decomposition = Reduction of your corpse’s dead cells into simpler forms of matter, mainly with the help of maggots and bacteria, accompanied by a strong unpleasant, rotten egg, odour.
Stages: Fresh > Bloat > Active Decay > Advanced Decay > Dry remains
(1) Fresh Stage
Once your heart stops contracting and blood can no longer supplied to your muscles and skin bringing oxygen and removing carbon dioxide from your tissues, your cells would still be alive and well for a little longer as the remaining volume of blood in your blood is utilised as per usual via cellular metabolism and aerobic microbes. Nevertheless, your physiological pH will decrease due to increasing concentrations of Carbon Dioxide and your cells will begin to lose its structural integrity, allowing the release of cellular enzymes from your lysosomes and mitochondria which are capable of breaking down surrounding cells and tissues. This process is also known as autolysis. Then your body begins to produce energy via anaerobic metabolism by catabolising your carbohydrates, lipids, proteins which produces a whole range of harmful substances like Propionic Acid, Lactic Acid, Methane, Hydrogen Sulfide and Ammonia. This process of microbial proliferation is known as putrefaction. The first insects, blowflies and flesh flies arrive at your dead body seeking a suitable oviposition site.
(2) Bloat Stage
The accumulation of gases like Hydrogen Sulfide, Carbon Dioxide, Methane and Nitrogen within your body cavity causes distention of your abdomen which gives cadavers its overall bloated appearance. As partial pressures of gases increases, fluids have no choice but to be forced out through its natural orifices such as the nose, mouth and anus. This buildup of pressure combined with the loss of integrity of your skin may cause your body to rupture. Anaerobic bacteria deep within your intestines will transform Haemoglobin into Sulfhemoglobin and other coloured pigments: Hydrogen Sulfide + Haemoglobin —> Sulhemoglobin
By then, maggots will hatch and begin to feed on your tissues confining themselves to natural orifices like your nostrils, anus and mouth. They then dig under your skin causing it to slip, and its hairs will be detached from its follicles. As your skin ruptures in random locations, oxygen will re-enter the body providing more surface area for fly larvae to develop and aerobic micro-organisms to roam around.
(3) Active Decay Stage
This is when most of what you have left is reduced to ashes. As maggots and decomposition fluids consume everything that is part of you, all your memories, ideas, dreams and, human structure and function will be destroyed, decommissioned and ultimately destroyed. It’s unfortunate your brain cannot act as a computer hard drive so a close friend or family member can download and store all the data that codes your personality, attitude, memories, skills, talents, knowledge and ideas generator. By this stage what is remainder will begin to smell.
(4) Advanced Decay Stage
When there is sadly close to nothing of what is left of you, all maggots and insects hatched will retreat and move on to their next meal. Your site of decay, known as a Cadaver Decomposition Island (CDI), will increase the soil’s carbon and nutrients such as Phosphorus, Potassium, Calcium, Nitrogen and Magnesium.
(5) Dry/remains, Skeletonisation Stage
All that remains are nothing but bones, cartilage and dry skin which eventually will be bleached when exposed to mother nature. Plants and nature’s growth will begin to surround your remains and over time will bring you down to the depths of its root system.
All the elements and complex chemicals making up the integrity of your cells and skin which has made you you are nothing but broken up, lost and buried deep underground. Your remains are now embedded in the Earth’s crust, along with the millions of skeletons buried around you. You are now classified as a fossil fuel but when will society dig you out and use what you have left as fuels for their private transport? For the next several millennia, your remains will be shifted under the Earth’s mantle due to heat convection from the hot magma core below. Depending on whether your remains are underground on a tectonic plate, near a fault line or a tectonic border, or beneath the seabed, your remains may one day be consumed or broken down into smaller fragments by shifts in tectonic plates which causes earthquake tremors or geysers through the surface and erupting volcanoes erecting from the surface. But only time will tell. What I’ve laid out to you is the detailed processes of natural death. It would be gruesome, disgusting and uncomfortable for me to describe the processes that spontaneously occur when your body experiences excessive g-force, household accidents, a ramming object, poisoning, a bullet to vital organs or limb muscles, excessive laughter, deep penetration from a sharp object or strangulation. I’ll leave that to the homicide detectives, archeologists and investigators.
It’s apparent that a permanent sleep, loss of neural stimulation and loss of consciousness are the final nails in your coffin before laid to rest in a grave ready for cremation. But what do people feel and see in their last moments of being alive? Has anyone came back from being dead and remembered what it feels to be senesced and actually lived to tell the tale? I read stories about people recounting their blurred experience of being dead. Some said they saw a bright light, some saw nothing but blackness with no thoughts nor dreams whatsoever whilst others cannot even recall passing away temporarily. Not only is this phenomena quite extraordinary and frightening because it reminds us of scenes from the Walking Dead, but also it is intriguing to believe that the brain can resurrect the body itself especially its vital organs like the heart after temporary death. There are fears dead people are resurrected as zombies who may possess a contrastingly cannibalistic personality whilst walking stutteringly with its arms outreached. However this is not the case, because after waking up from their dreamless sleep, they continue living the way they used to without any memory of being dead whatsoever. Many doctors and scientists around the world are too shocked and bewildered to explain how a person becomes resurrected seconds to days after they were presumed dead.
http://theweek.com/articles/474803/7-bizarre-tales-people-coming-back-from-dead
I once discussed with a good friend of mine named Lucy about the soul, reincarnation and resurrection in a story she shared with me. Although she is an atheist, i personally do not feel any attachment to any religion despite my parents supporting Buddhism. My first thoughts about our bodies having a soul and the possibility of reincarnation was nothing but science fiction and creative religious writing. Because she was optimistic that one’s soul may be transferred from one organism to another in the afterlife, I was curious enough to research this. Though I still had doubts over this religious, philosophical and mythological phenomena ever been proven scientifically. Honestly I have a fear of dying like some people. I’m afraid of the trauma and struggle to breathe prior to the end of my life. How long will my name last into the future before I am completely forgotten? Will there be another person born to be just as identical as me in terms of background, DNA, personality, attitude, life choices and intelligence? If miraculously, I was to be reincarnated in a different body, would I carry memories of my previous life with me or would my mind be reset and I have start a new life all over again? What are the chances I’ll be reborn in an animal, insect, or a human of the opposite gender? What is there to do if I’m dead besides seeing black? I’m starting to feel that this afterlife where heaven and hell exist according to religious beings may be wishful and creative fiction to ease our nerves and fears of our personality from dying out. There are so many unanswered questions about consciousness and understanding the philosophy behind it is still complicated and controversial. Nonetheless I’m willing to discuss consciousness, the soul (if it is proven to exist), reincarnation and resurrection hopefully in scientific detail in another post.
What do our bodies, the elements of the periodic table and the stars in the universe have in common? They all contain this minuscule subatomic particle called an electron. Your skin, organs, veins, arteries, lymphs and particles within your body and interstitial fluid is made up of trillions of cells and ions respectively. Every cell has a membrane made out of a double layer of phospholipids with the polar phosphate group directed inwards along with lipid rafts consisting of steroids, integral and peripheral transmembrane proteins. The most common elements in your cellular structure consist of Oxygen (O), Hydrogen (H), Carbon (C), Nitrogen (N), Sulfur (S) and Phosphate (P) which form the primary structure of amino acids in proteins, polysaccharides (sugars) and ATP (Adenosine Tri-Phosphate), the body’s main fuel source. Your interstitial fluid especially in the intercellular space, central nervous system, endocrine, exocrine and paracrine systems, and the millions of nephrons in your kidneys contains ions and hormones essential for human function. Sodium (Na), Potassium (K), Chlorine (Cl) and Water (H2O) are the main constituents in formation of action potentials in your nervous system, osmotic and hydrostatic balance, and the filtration, secretion, reabsorption processes in the nephron while Calcium (Ca), Iron (Fe) and Magnesium (Mg) are integral for restructuring of bones and teeth, Haemoglobin (Hb) saturation, nerve and muscle function, blood glucose level stability and a healthy immune system.
Your bodily hormones like Oestrogen, Aldosterone, Renin, Progesterone, Luteinzing Hormone, Adrenaline, Noradrenaline, Angiotensin, Gonadotropin-Releasing Hormone, Cortisol and Cholesterol that often exists in temporarily large concentrations in reproductive functions, digestive functions and fight-or-flight response always contains these 4 gaseous elements: Oxygen, Hydrogen, Carbon and Nitrogen. These 4 elements bond to one another in different ways giving extraordinary and unique chemical structures like cyclic rings and single/double/triple bonds. These bonds are termed 'covalent bonds’. A covalent bond is formed between the sharing of delocalised valence electrons on the outer orbital shells of adjacent atoms. The term covalence in the context of chemical bonding was first used in 1919 by Irving Langmuir in an article inside the “Journal of the American Chemical Society”, The Arrangement of Electrons in Atoms and Molecules. The concept of covalent bonding traces back a few years before 1919 (don’t know when exactly) to Gilbert. N Lewis in 1916. That is why we refer to electron dot notation you learn in chemistry class as Lewis notation to illustrate the relevant valence electrons as dots around the atomic symbols.
What intrigues me is that the electron is the smallest hence lightest of the subatomic particles, smaller than the Proton and Neutron that make up the bulb of every atomic nucleus. It is also the most mobile in a stable atom when you observe it spinning and orbiting in respective subshells of variant energy levels. Towards the end of the 19th century in 1896, British physicist Joseph J.Thomson accompanied by his colleagues John S. Townsend and H. A. Wilson, performed experiments on electric discharges at Cavendish laboratory in Cambridge, England. Although previous experiments were similarly performed by other physicists like Johann Wilhelm Hittorf, Eugen Goldstein, Sir William Crookes, Arthur Schuster and Hendrik Lorentz, they couldn’t agree on a plausible explanation based on their observations. What they observed was when a high voltage was applied in a gas volume at low pressure, a spectacular bright glow formed. It was known that the discharge and the glow in the gas were to due to some object or matter emitted from the cathode, the negative pole of the applied voltage. Thomson believed that the cathode rays were streams of high-speed particles rather than waves, atoms or molecules. He observed that the cathode rays were deflected by both electric and magnetic fields, meaning they were electrically charged. By thoroughly measuring their deflection, Thomson determined the ratio between the electric charge (e) and the mass (m) of the rays now known as e/m. This is his finding:
e/m = 1.8 x 10^-11 Coulombs/kg
By 1897, J. J. Thomson’s discovery was named, the electron, by George F. Fitzgerald and the name has since been accepted worldwide. The mass of an electron is approximately 9.109 x 10^-31 kg with an electric charge of -1.602 x 10^-19 Coulombs. Coulomb (Q), the unit of electric charge, was named after Charles-Augustin de Coulomb after his famous scientific law of electrostatic force of attraction and repulsion. The size or radius of an electron, known as Lorentz radius or the Thomson scattering length, is approximated to be 2.8179403227(19) x 10^-15 m, based on a classical (non-quantum) relativistic model of the electron. That means a sole electron is invisible to the naked eye and in our eye can we feel the full brunt of the electron impacting on our atoms. So far I haven’t found any plausible explanation as to why the electron is so small and yet it can traverse the universe and still continuously emit electrical energy. I’m also curious as to whether subatomic particles including the electron contain anything within them that allows them to generate unlimited electrical energy, but so far no one really knows. The best I could uncover for you is that protons and neutrons are made up of these minute particles called quarks, held together by gluons. However there is still debate on whether the inside of an electron contains anything at all. What do you think?
From the pixels on your computer and phone screens while you read this blog, to the copper wires in your home and the biochemical processes throughout your body from macroscopic to microscopic level, it seems to me that life would not be the same without electrons. Every inanimate object, living organism and plant on Earth and neighbouring planets, moons in our solar system, the Milky Way galaxy and neighbouring galaxies revolves around subatomic particles especially electrons. You and I are exposed to millions of electrons every day and although they are emitted as radiation, our absorbed dose from them will still be extremely minute that it’s inadequate to cause any biological harm whatsoever. Where did these electrons come from? How did it end up in an orbit of a invariant clump of protons and neutrons? Can the Big Bang Theory give us any guidelines or clues as to how these particles were made in the first place? Based on what I learnt in school, I thought that there cannot be any process, not even your sharpest knife or any nuclear explosion that can dissect a particle to extremely small proportions right up to the Planck length (1.616229(38) x 10^-35). All these questions about how we and everything and everyone else around us are made from these little things are still unanswered and they may never will be answered. I may be 21 years old but I might not be alive to see myself or someone else finally make a puzzle piece breakthrough that would finally answer the questions us humans dared to dream. But would answering those questions create even more questions about us and our universe? I feel there is no end to this like it’s the infinite questionnaire but that is something I would like to know about. Nevertheless, it is an opportunity to earn that deserved Nobel Prize and your name for the whole world to remember.
Money. Cash. Loose change. Bills. You and I carry this in our pockets wherever you go. The modern society that you and I live revolves around this object. To be honest, I don’t see money as a necessity for a long life because it does not taste like tender chicken or a passionate kiss of my partner. Nevertheless I often get ridiculed and criticised by everyone around me including my family and those who specialise in commerce, economics, finance and business. Not only would I feel disrespected and alienated by my fellow species, but it intrigues me how our society has matured and complicated the way we maximise our lifetimes on Earth. Everyone around me talks about getting a job just to receive bunches of these printed pieces of paper. That’s why most of my friends advertise offers on social media for tutoring on their best performing subjects to the next generation of secondary students in the following year we complete our high school education. Unlike language, there is no universal currency which seems peculiar. There is the Dollar (USA & Australia), Yuan or Ren Ming Bi (China), New Tai Bi (Taiwan), Yen (Japan), Pound (UK), Euro (Countries in the EU), Roubles (Russia), Ram (South Africa) and Rupees (India). In fact the world we live in is home to over 180 different currencies. I thought a single monetary exchange system would be efficient in terms of calculation and foreign spending by tourists and trade managers. However there seems to be a huge resistance from a majority of the economists and the general public for a monetary currency everyone worldwide would use, according to this report.
https://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/wp/wp9817.pdf
It seems that different international stock markets have different economic realities and visions. I thought that local currencies also carried a cultural significance to the traditions and values of the country like Abraham Lincoln and Franklin Roosevelt on the US Dollar notes, and the Emu and Peacock on the Australian coins. If the future of economics features a single currency agreed by every nation around the world, for instance, the US Dollar, then every currency that is not that single monetary currency is called “fiat money” meaning they are only useful in collections of flashcards of famous people and symbolistic creatures from different countries. Nevertheless it seems extremely unlikely that money would be removed from existence unless a zombie apocalypse broke out like in Resident Evil or The Walking Dead.
The word “money” originated from a temple of Juno, on Capitoline, which is 1 of Rome’s 7 hills. It comes from the Old French moneie, and from Latin moneta meaning 'mint or money’, which suggested the Roman money was minted in the temple of Juno. The first known use of money came in the form of barter dating back to at least 100,000 years ago. Barter is a system where goods or services are directly exchanged for other goods and services without using a medium of exchange similar to a trade market like 3 piles of grain for a cow. It was often used in times of a monetary crisis when the currency is unstable such as hyperinflation or unavailability for conducting commerce. Around as early a 15,000 BCE, Anatolian obsidian, a raw material for stone-age tools, was distributed with organised trade occurring in the 9th millennium AD. Proceeding to as early as 9000 BCE, both grain and cattle were used in a barter-like method of money exchange. It’s funny to discover that according to Roman law back then, fines had to be paid in oxen and sheep. However bartering was not without its problems, most notably it requires a coincidence of wants. It’s like the Global Trading Station (GTS) in modern Pokemon games where you put out a Pokemon you want to trade and coincidentally someone on the other side of the globe is looking for that Pokemon and spontaneously trades the Pokemon you wish to have in order to fill in your Pokedex. However in the real world, if a wheat farmer needs bananas from a fruit farmer, a direct exchange is somewhat impossible as seasonal fruit would spoil before the grain harvest. What would they do to solve this problem? The solution is to trade the bananas for wheat indirectly through a third, or intermediate, commodity meaning the bananas will be exchanged for an intermediate commodity when it ripens. If the intermediate commodity does not wither and is in demand through the year then it can be exchanged for wheat after the harvest. Today this is known as commodity money, which you carry around in your pockets, wallets or purses.
I feel that we are lectured by our parents, mentors, idols and teachers to think that money is the key to survival in society. They say that to be the fittest in this society, you have to strive for a decent paid salary or putting your name on the world’s rich list. However when I learnt about natural selection, evolution and survival of the fittest in science class, money wasn’t around during the first million years of Earth’s lifetime. As human beings, we were born to think like every other animal species like searching for food, finding shelter to call our temporary home, hunting for live prey whilst competing against other predators to feed ourselves and our respective families, befriend strangers of our own kind and form our own community. So how did money end up on our survival checklist? The fact is no one really knows how the concept of money was invented. As a human being, I thought that food, sex, love and Facebook / Instagram likes was rewarding enough but turns out I can not get my year’s supply of KFC or chocolate-flavoured condoms if I don’t put forward money to the person at the counter. Nowadays we use coins and banknotes as our commodity in exchange for the goods we prefer to get. Because the human population is so large (around 2 billion and counting) and the demand for food and water gradually increases, it suggests that money exists as a means of controlling how much food, water and goods we can consume on a daily basis in order to satisfy a majority of the human population and preserve our neighbouring animal species that may be endangered as natural selection takes its toll. In communist countries money is distributed as a means of equality while in capitalist countries, money is distributed as a means to distinguish people of different social classes. I'll cover this type of issue in another post. Meanwhile, from about 1000 BC money first existed in the shape of knives and spades made from bronze in China during the Zhou Dynasty. They were also cast bronze replicas of cowrie shells in use before coins. The first manufactured coins seemed to have situated in India, China, and in cities around the Aegean Sea between 700 and 500 BC. Some Aegean coins were stamped, heated and hammered with insignia, Indian coins (from the Ganges River Valley) were punched metal disks and Chinese coins (from the Great Plain) were cast bronze with square holes in the centre to be strung together. Copper (Cu), Nickel (Ni), Gold (Au) and Silver (Ag) are the main metal elements of choice when producing coins. These metals are located in Group 11 of the periodic table. They are relatively inert and resistant to corrosion or rust. Their naturally abundant isotopes are not radioactive hence your body won’t age as quickly increasing your chances of developing cancer at an earlier age. These metals are quite soft hence are easily damaged and susceptible to abrasion in daily use as coins. The coins that you carry around are all made of alloys like Copper and Gold, Gold and Silver, sometimes Chromium and Silver (Stainless Steel) to increase its durability, to increase its 3D lattice strength between the bonds of the metal atoms which makes it least likely to become deformed and resistant to wear and tear.
The first known use of paper currency was during the Song Dynasty in China during the 11th century AD but its development began in the 7th century AD during the Tang Dynasty. Merchants and wholesalers there preferred the issue of credit notes over the heavy bulk of copper coinage in large commercial transactions. It later spread to the Mongol Empire and then European explorers like Marco Polo and William of Rubruck introduced the same concept in Europe during the 13th century (Yuan Dynasty). Since then the use of banknotes began to spread rapidly through the European countries like Sweden, England and Scotland, and it became increasingly popular by economists across the globe when exchanging large transactions.
Whenever there’s a reward on offer in the form of large sums of cash if you successfully complete a game show challenge, become the last man or woman remaining in a weight loss or cooking competition, I see people’s faces light up when the opportunity to showcase their appearance, journey, passion and talent on television arises. These people seem to find the experience quite rewarding and fun because there are recordings of them stored in the terabytes of storage of particular television channels. However, when money is involved, that fun and excitement is most likely depleted and the hardships of loneliness and begs for mercy may repeat as in a life cycle.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5w00AFTzIoc
When I watched this documentary “Money Over Matter”, I got curious about why people are so obsessed with accumulating large sums of money. Do you remember the 2008 Wall Street Crash that forced a global economic recession or the Great Depression during the 1930s? It was not the plummeting stocks that got me riled up like those who worked laboriously in front of the screens, angrily hammered the phones, and desperately fingered the keys on that eventful day. It was the outrage, finger-pointing, and panic that erupted amongst every man and woman whilst they helplessly watched the line on the graph travel downwards towards the lowest shares since the Great Depression. It seems the way we were taught how to utilise our money conservatively and wisely influences the way we think too. All of us have this emotional desire for a quick reward or in the long term a guaranteed victory in an auction or competition and the desperate urge to not end up in last place. I feel this is because the experience of losing a close contest is not only heartbreaking and aggravating but also it sets up an impression in front of those around us and we are then known for our misfortunes hence the outcomes would involve consistent taunts and teases which is humiliating and hurtful on our behalf. This may explain Wall Street’s version of the calm before the storm in 1930 and 2008. As competing shareholders seek to collect and deliver stocks at every passing opportunity, the total dow jones will close higher each passing day as the same product is sold for a steadily higher price as it changes hands from person to person. When things seem like heading towards financial paradise, there comes a time when a stakeholder fails to sell the product at a higher price, which triggers a chain reaction of financial losses. In their language, the expanding financial bubble will burst at some stage as it is only a matter of time. Does that mean people are unaware of the emotions that drive us to increase the price on a product we originally bought it for? In 1776, Scottish philosopher Adam Smith published his work “The Wealth of Nations” which contained the first modern work of economics. He states that everyone working in economics thinks rationally and our economic system works automatically and, when left with freedom, is able to self-regulate. Would you think the economy and share market is driven human emotion? Well, the daily mundane tasks a Wall Street shareholder would include calculating risks, estimations, odds, and making rational decisions in anticipation of the direction of the stock exchange. I don’t know how and why stocks work or how their countless telephone calls impact on a shareholder's effectiveness in the demanding role they undertake on a daily basis but I’m curious to find out from an expert or two.
When we are thinking rationally, there’s an area of the brain located in the basal forebrain of the pre-optic area of the Hypothalamus called the Nucleus Accumbens. This region is the main regulating centre of our reward system which plays a role in processing rewarding stimuli like food, water, sex and love. It is also highly active in drug addicts, and sex predators too. The Nucleus Accumbens is selectively activated when we perceive pleasant, or emotionally arousing images and during our daydreams of the most pleasant, emotional scenes like romance and intimacy in different popular films and television episodes. Despite money looking pretty innocuous and contrasting to the things that are crucial to our biological survival, it somehow heavily activates the Nucleus Accumbens too. But I don’t seem to understand why this is the case? It might have evolutionary ties to our ancestors’ perception of modern commodities being a necessary reward in order to receive the things we dearly want but that requires significant research and understanding.
Nowadays we all see technology continue to advance and it has become the critical foundation for electronic money transfers like credit cards and bank accounts. There's this new currency called Bitcoin, a virtual currency with no materialistic value outside the cyberspace. I'm still learning about this new currency but I heard that online purchases within the depths of our World Wide Web use this currency because of its simplicity and intractability but that's for another post.
