A paradigm shift isn’t happening overnight, either – but it’s slowly entering Western conciousness. SUVs are being dumped for a fraction of their purchase price by status climbers who realized they can’t afford to fill up the tank daily on these monstrosities any more. Some people are still driving them around, so these prices haven’t hit the pocket books of those with abundant finances yet.

A few more bicycles are on the road now. I’ve not taken the public transportation recently, but I’ll bet the busses are starting to gain new riders as well. This happened last price jump, and it wasn’t this high. It was the test run I think. Push the market value up, get people used to the idea, lower it a bit to regain consumer confidence, then slowly raise it again. It’s like sitting in a pot of water and slowly raising the temperature – eventually the water’s boiling fatally but it was done gradually enough that nobody noticed.

The solution however, is right in front of our noses – and people are starting to consider it. Walk, or ride a bicycle! It works in Europe. Too many people will hop in their cars to drive < 5km to the store for a loaf of bread. That’s easily walkable in 15 minutes, or five on a bicycle – and you’d get some exercise at the same time. I’ve done it in the rain, I’ve done it in a blizzard – I don’t own a car and never have.

However, most of us car-free bicycle riders are still being looked at as the crazy ones. That’s OK. We know you’ll come around eventually if the pricing trends continue. Think of it this way – prices for produce and consumer items will rise due to increased transportation costs – so high gas prices affect drivers twice as much as cyclists. Just some food for thought.

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For there was never yet philosopher
That could endure the toothache patiently,
However they have writ the style of gods
And made a pish at chance and sufferance.

- William Shakespeare
Much Ado About Nothing
Scene 5, Act 1

I have a cracked tooth up front that’s been that way for quite a while now. I have some benefits from work, so I sucked it up and went to the dentist. After a few regular checkups they finally decided that something really needed to be done about it.

This led to me having the first stages of a root canal last Friday, after which they stuck on a temporary filling. Naturally an infection ensued, so an anti-biotic and much ibuprofen have been prescribed. It turns out that in the digging and scrapping the dentist went a bit beyond the root – into the upper jaw.

Then, yesterday morning the dentist removed all of that, disinfected the area and stuffed it with a filling material. They then inserted a post and built up a cosmetic tooth on top of that. Not very useful, I’m assured, but it looks just like a tooth so I guess I cannot complain. Except about this massive, constant pain that I am assured will start to abate in a few more days.

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Perhaps I should explain – a while ago it was discovered that I had a rodent and it was crawling around in my kitchen. I heard it scratching one night and then noticed a loaf of bread tunneled into. I don’t normally leave it out, so this was a crime of opportunity. It also confirmed the strange noises that keep me awake at 3am sometimes are not just in my head. A few days later it was bolder and showed itself, thankfully this time my cat saw it too and held a vigil in that room for a few days.

I tried a live trap rigged with bait at the end of a tube that would drop when crawled into. The tube would fall into a tall bucket that the mouse (hopefully) could not jump out of. This did nothing for several weeks and I gave up on it.

After a month or so with no sign of the rodent running about, I assumed it was hibernating – since my live-trap did not work whatsoever, and no other food had been spoiled. Then it woke me again at 3am. Next day, I searched for signs of mouse activity and found a brand new bag of quick oats now had nibble marks all over the bag and a hole tunneled right into it.

Well, now I am losing sleep, food and patience. I can’t have a disease carrying creature where I store and prepare my food, and the live trapping was not working. Besides that, I live in the suburbs – the mouse is likely to come back either to my home or another, and if I drop it in the country more than likely it will be eaten by it’s field mouse cousins if not a larger predator. Did I mention that it’s also -30C at night here lately?

Maybe that is all just rationalization of a course of action after the fact. After a few weeks of Zyban and fighting a nicotine addiction I just do not care. This little creature, however cute, has to go for sanitary and sanity reasons.

I bought some run of the mill snap traps. Four for a dollar. I baited them with peanut butter and some of the spoiled oats. I have been checking them twice a day for mice. Nothing. On the weekend I looked closer at two of the traps that where more out of the way – not only was there no mice, there was no bait!
It seems the creature or creatures where able to lick the peanut butter off the trigger without releasing the spring.
Part of me figures “no problem – now they will trust the traps.”
Dutifully I am more careful with the peanut butter this time and tried to set the traps a little more sensitive. There was no peanut butter on either trap again this morning. Someone commented to me that now I have pets, since I seem to be just feeding them.

Tonight I did some tests and confirmed that these traps take a fair bit of weight to release, and I know for a fact that mice are very light. I took some time to mix some honey into the peanut butter and I set the traps as close to being ready to snap as I could. My hope is the honey will make the bait stickier, thus causing the mouse to get more aggressive with removing it. I also spread it along the whole trigger with the idea that the longer it’s there licking – the more chance it has to set it off.
Furthermore, I moved one of the out of the way traps that was untouched along the wall with the original two.

I think part of my problem with this whole ordeal is that the traps are emptied every night – I was blissfully thinking that they had not been around when there where no droppings and nothing eaten. If this fails, I might try impaling a piece of bread onto the peanut butter coated trigger, or rigging something up to make the trigger larger, thus giving more leverage.

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Quitting smoking is not an easy task, and smoking tobacco is not something that can just be shrugged off at a whim once started. The best course of action is to never smoke cigarettes in the first place, but for many of us it’s too late for that. The best way to overcome any challenge, I find, is to learn as much as possible first.

In order to do so, let me provide some basic background information about tobacco and nicotine. The plant tobacco is a large flowering plant, with green leaves and is part of the nightshade family. All nightshade plants such as tomatoes and cocoa also have trace amounts of nicotine in them, but tobacco has the highest naturally occurring levels and that is why it is the plant that gets used for smoking.

Nicotine is an effective and deadly natural pesticide and is part of the nightshade family’s defensive strategy. It was discovered thousands of years ago that the tobacco plant (and it’s high levels of nicotine) was capable of producing a psychoactive effect in humans and that smoking it was the easiest way to achieve these effects rapidly while controlling the intake dosage.

It takes only about seven seconds for nicotine to pass through the blood-brain barrier when smoked. Interestingly the illegal drug cocaine does the same in about 5 seconds and is made from the cocoa plant of the same family.
At this point it starts to increase the flow of adrenaline into the bloodstream. This raises blood pressure, heart rate, dopamine and glucose levels. This is the fun part that gets most kids interested in smoking it – a couple of puffs and within seconds you get a massive rush. The dopamine is integral to the body’s pleasure and reward system. The rush of adrenaline and dopamine is makes the body immediately have a happy tingly sensation (much like in other addictive stimulants.)

So far, it sounds like a pretty good deal and indeed these effects are smoking’s initial draw and has been for centuries. But, nicotine as you will remember is poisonous – because it goes straight into the central nervous system and is a very dirty drug. It causes havoc with several other brain chemicals, each contributing it’s own effects, such as reduced anxiety and improved concentration (on the positive side.) Nicotine has another wonderful property – in small rapid doses it rushes through the system and causes a high. In larger accumulated doses it begins to overload these same systems and cause a sedative affect. It’s like a Choose Your Own Adventure rolled in a little paper tube!

Since nicotine activates the dopamine reward system, it starts forming an addiction – the body starts craving the happy high. This is exactly how cocaine and heroin do their dirty work as well. Recent findings have shown that nicotine is more effective at doing this than either of those two, and is actually more addictive. Nicotine also has a very short half-life, so it’s beneficial effects wear off within hours, requiring the user to introduce more into the system to prevent the effects of withdrawal and restore the steady state of high the body adapts to receiving.

Still with me? We’re getting into the bad parts now. Combustion of the tobacco leaves creates a large variety of toxins which are invariably inhaled and absorbed into the body with the nicotine. In fact, very little of the smoke is actually nicotine at all – a 1 gram king size cigarette might release less than a milligram of it.
Due to nicotine’s high degree of toxicity – more a couple of milligrams of inhaled nicotine will have very adverse effects on the body, and 40-60mg of nicotine is lethal to an adult.

The tar and chemicals from cigarettes is what clogs the lungs and causes cancer. They constrict blood vessels, block arteries and leave the immune system in a constantly weakened state – it’ fights a whole roster of nastiness with each puff. Nicotine itself prevents the body from killing off cancerous cells and thus indirectly allows cancer to take hold where it appears.

So, what have we learned? A tiny amount of nicotine is a powerfully addictive drug, which in very low doses has several beneficial but temporary effects. Cigarettes themselves are filled entirely with toxins, but exist because they are a crude, yet effective system for delivering a safe dose of nicotine into the bloodstream.

It’s come to light that major cigarette manufacturers conducted their own independent research over 50 years ago that showed them their product was nicotine, not cigarettes, and in order to make money they needed to get as many people addicted to it as possible. They also knew that if it was readily known that their product was an addictive drug in the magnitude of cocaine and heroin and deadlier than both, the FDA would naturally outlaw it. So they buried this research, hindered and discredited anyone making these finding and outright lied to everyone for as long as they possibly could.

There is hope! If you can manage to abstain from nicotine for 48 to 72 hours it will have totally cleared your bloodstream. After the first few days the physical withdrawal symptoms lessen and your nervous system starts to re-stabilize itself to normal function. The withdrawals suck. If you’ve never experienced it – you probably cannot appreciate how bad it truly is. Your body goes into full revolt at such an abrupt change to it’s chemistry. Worse yet – any re-introduction of nicotine to the body puts it back to it’s addicted state until it’s flushed out again.

This means cold-turkey is the ONLY way to quit and now I explain my title for this article. Nicotine Replacement Therapy (as it is called) slowly lowers the level of nicotine in your bloodstream over a long period of time – in theory this is to allow the body to make the adjustment slowly. Astute readers (assuming anyone made it this far) will have noticed a paradox in this.

If the addiction state is resumed at the re-introduction of nicotine to the bloodstream, wouldn’t tapering down the daily dose just cause gradually increasing withdrawals over a greater period of time? Nicotine now takes weeks to leave the body instead of days, and each week it is forced to endure more and more withdrawals. Sounds like torture to me, and do you know what? It doesn’t work – it increases the smokers frustration and reinforces the body’s natural urge to defend itself, and the addiction that keeps it from experiencing the withdrawal discomfort.

I think the patch has to be the greatest swindle the industry has pulled, next to cigarettes themselves – increase the addiction and sell it as therapy. Heck, when you put it into proper perspective – tobacco companies sell the drug nicotine, not cigarettes – the patch, the gum and all other methods of delivering that drug to the end user is all the same to them. You’re buying their drug and it’s impossible to become free of it unless you stop taking it altogether.

Genius, pure evil genius!

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A drug which causes vivid dreams, hyperactivity and a general sense of unreality might sound appealing if it didn’t come with dry mouth, excessive sweating, general insomnia, and increased flatulence. These are just some of the effects I’ve been putting up with since I started taking Zyban a few weeks ago.

But it has this amazing saving grace that keeps me taking it as prescribed: I haven’t had a cigarette in twelve days and I don’t even want one! I look at the host of side effects and disruption to my life and compare to the alternative possibilities of continued smoking up to and including death and it no longer seems so bad.

Actually, the effects have been easier on me than the usual nicotine withdrawals. It brings to mind that I maybe should not blame this humble little pill for everything I’m going through and thank it for masking a lot of agony.

So there’s the pleasure cruise – I’m not smoking and it’s not the most agonizing experience I’ve ever gone through (I have tried quitting before on numerous occasions.)

For those of you looking to break free from this insidious and strangely legal addiction – talk to your doctor and see if Zyban might be appropriate for you. I hope to touch on it (tobacco smoking) in a bit more detail in the upcoming weeks, particularly as to why I believe people will always relapse when they try to cut back or use Nicotine Replacement “Therapy” (NRT).

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The rough recipe is as follows:


1 onion (chopped)
3 garlic cloves (minced)
1 can (796ml) crushed tomatoes
1 can (796ml) diced tomatoes
1 can (341ml) whole kernel corn (drained)
1 can (284ml) mushrooms (drained)
1 can (540ml) Six Bean Medely (drained)
1 can (540ml) White Kidney Beans (drained)
1 tsp fresh ground black pepper
4 tbsp Club House Tex Mex Seasoning


Combine all ingredients into crock pot. Cook on high for 1 hour, then reduce to low for another 4 to 8 8 to 12 hours. Enjoy.

Edit: Slow cookers take a while to really make everything just right - under 8 hours won't do it for this recipe. Also, for those who want a little meat in their chili you can replace the second can of beans with the equivalent in browned beef or chicken. Make sure you cook thoroughly if you do that.

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This article is linked from a post on a web-forum made by someone who lists themselves anonymously, and I’ve seen it elsewhere on other sites as well. However, as always, I digress.

Most of this article is made up of speculation, unreferenced studies and opinions stated as facts. Further research into this also finds not one solid reference to the source of apparent Soviet testing in the 1970′s. It claims to be refering to this mysterious document which nobody can find:
FORENSIC RESEARCH DOCUMENT
Prepared By: William P. Kopp
A. R. E. C. Research Operations TO61-7R10/10-77F05
RELEASE PRIORITY: CLASS I ROO1a

Furthermore it’s been flagged on at least one site as false: http://www.boycottwatch.org/misc/MicrowavedWater.htm.

Microwave ovens came out in the late 1940′s and have been in widespread use since the 1970′s – according to this document we should all be dead, ill or dying.
The article’s claim that microwaves cause foods to produce carcinogens is the only portion I found to be credible, but what they fail to indicate is that most foods, when cooked (regardless of how) can produce small levels of carcinogenic chemicals – and that the end effect of cooking at high-heat from a convection oven is actually more likely to do so than a microwave.

More digging finds that the few references that are to something in existance (such as the dangers of microwave radation on humans) are refering to something on a large scale passing the radiation directly through a person at high-wattage, and having very little to with what is boucing around inside your oven.

The article eventually goes off into the world of fantasy – refering to reduction of vital energy fields and nucleoproteins in foods. The first is spiritual speculation (hardly likely to be in a Soviet research document) and the second is refering to components of DNA.

Finally the summary at the bottom makes several bold statements not previously addressed in the article, and regardless – it’s all fiction anyways. It astounds me how much this article has spread and people post it like the truth.

*Update July 8th, 2010:* It appears the site has fleshed out the article a little more since this was posted, however it still does not address the damage caused to food by heating in other forms compared to being heated by a microwave so I still consider it unnecessary fear mongering.

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Of course my doctor emphasized the importance of quitting smoking, which I don’t deny I really should stop doing. Other than catching every little virus or infection going around (centered mostly around my respiratory system – go figure, being a smoker) I’m generally pretty healthy. At least, that’s how it appears from this preliminary examination, I have yet to go get some internal-diagnostic tests done.

The importance of, or reason for having yearly checkups done was never really clear to me. My doctor explained it in a way that made sense. He told me that he treats the patient – not the paper. (I’m paraphrasing his words, of course.)
It gives them (doctors, in general) a set of reference data which assists them to spot trends.

It reminds me of the analytics I do for a living – although computers have no need for a doctor’s level of professional compassion, naturally. The more targeted-data that can be gathered on any given issue, the better. Observe that data over time and you can sometimes spot a trend – from there you can start to deduce a cause for the effect being investigated. Some people call it debugging, but it can be also applied outside of the software world.

As I’ve learned today – it works for doctors, too.

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Ironically, that is also why I titled my post with it – because I’ve inadvertently gotten pink-eye. I’ve got these drops which the doctor prescribed and they’re working pretty good so far.

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However, my illness and home-remedies aren’t entirely the point, here.

I picked up Tazo Chai, organic spiced black tea. (See www.tazo.com requires flash, opens a pop-up)
Manufactured in Portland Oregon (I’d buy local, but have yet to see a local organic spiced chai in stores), this wonderful tea contains organically grown black teas and spices. Mixed with a little bit of liquid honey and 2% milk, it’s a superbly refreshing hot drink, and one of the nicest chai teas that I have had to date.

I must thank my brother, Craig for (inadvertently, most likely) introducing me to chai. When he decided to close the doors on his home-business making preserves and selling organic products, some of the teas that he stocked came my way. One of them was a spiced black tea and I’ve been a sucker for the stuff since. I almost like it better than coffee!

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