Saving lives

This post was inspired by two of my wonderful friends...

I thoroughly admire what they do. They're entertainers, they look like angels on silk ropes and have a very creative mind and very strong characters.
I look up to them and am inspired...

But for them, I am the one to look up to...

"Dona, you save lives" they say...
Yes I do, or better, I hope I will some day when all of my medical training will be finished but the point is this: I can only function if the people around me do their job too!

I need to sustain myself and I can only do that if I get to a supermarket or a restaurant, what would I do without a chef or someone stocking the shelves?
The reason why I'm in med-school is because I had teachers and trainers who taught me how to read and write and a good part of how to live life... I would be saving no lives if not for them!
I need my car to run well because that's my only way of getting to school and to the hospital, what would I do if no mechanics were working?

If I have a rubbish day, my head is full of thoughts, I need to relax and enjoy something beautiful I know there are people like Melissa Marie and Tad out there who can bring me to that special place.

So it's not me saving lives, it's all of us. It's a team of people none more important than the other. The only reason why there are doctors and lawyers and whatever other professions are considered "important" out there, is because around them there is a host of people who do their job too and do it well.

So thank you baker, thank you janitor, teacher, IT technician, entertainer... thank you because you're fundamental to my life as I hope I am in yours.

The only way to go on is by teamwork... that's the only way lives are really saved!

Kangoo jumping

While I was in NYC I got dragged by my friend Laura to the fitness discipline with the craziest name: Kangoo

"What the heck?" I thought... It sounds a bit like kangaroo ...and man I was the weirdest looking kangaroo of the bunch!!!
So, Kangoo is a new way of jumping around having ridiculous fun and staying fit.

As a matter of fact I attended a couple of classes and, despite wanting to die after just 10 minutes, (though I was assured that it gets better once you get used to the boots and the high intensity exercise) I thought it was the greatest workout I have ever experienced since I started walking!

So what's all the fuss about?

Here is a picture of me with Mario (the trainer) and our Kangoo jumps

The shoes are actual boots with resistance bands underneath set in a way that will allow you to jump quite high without losing your balance.

Mario always starts the work out by saying that the 2 most important things to do are to have fun and keep moving. I accepted the 1st one as a given and then only understood the 2nd one when I almost splattered my pretty face against one of the mirrors in the gym because the bottom of the boot is seriously curved and unless you DO keep moving standing up is quite a mission.

Because of this though, your core muscles are constantly engaged and I was quite sore everywhere at the end.

So, what exactly is Kangoo?

As taken from Mario's website: Kangoo is for people who are injured and can't run outdoors because of the high impact and for people that want to have fun and actually smile while they are working out. It's for people that have plateaued and want to take their workouts to the next level and for people who actually want to look forward to exercising. It's for people that want to run harder, faster, and longer without any pain to their knees, back, and other joints and for people with joint issues and people who never want to have any joint issues due to impact. Most importantly it's for any and every one that is not afraid to try something innovative, intense, fun, different, and new. Kangoo is the most fun and burns the most calories of any other cardio that you could ever do and the weight of the boot coupled with rebounding against gravity gives you an intense cellular workout that ultra-sculpts your entire body especially your core and legs!

I can certainly vouch for the fun and the intense workout and of course, there are numerous medical benefits that come with this kind of exercise.
The music used during the class is kick-ass high intensity, it's loud, it's empowering and takes you high without, of course, leaving out Mario's energy, charm and approachability making this discipline the absolute must for anybody who is wanting to try something different.

I am so sad that it hasn't reached Scotland yet... maybe I could be the one to help with that?

For the moment being I know I'll be back in that gym as soon as I set foot in NYC again and I may even get my own Kangoos... certainly I won't ever stop to thank Laura for introducing me to the hardest yet most exceptional workout ever!

The force of nature

Yesterday I spent the afternoon in Atlantic City with my friends. While they were rehearsing for their show "The Accused" I was helping out videoing some, but mostly just enjoying the visual beauty of it all.

While we were there, an official announcement was made by the governor of NJ declaring the state of emergency (because of hurricane Irene approaching) and telling people to evacuate the area within 24h.

I had heard of hurricanes down south and the damage they bring, but never really coming up as far high as this time...

So, while enjoying dinner just before making our way back up to NYC, we started discussing the force of nature. Just as we were all voicing our opinions, Colleen pulled out her phone and decided to show us pictures of her favourite tree "Papi".

Papi represents the force of nature in its utmost power, and I could see immediately how this was well suited to our discussion...
Not like a hurricane and its gusts of wind and shower rains, not like the earthquake that shook the ground just a few days ago, but that quiet force that day after day shows us that we have no control over it.

Papi is a larger than life tree that decided not to be imprisoned by a fence put too close to him.

And so he completely engulfed it within his trunk!

Have a look at these amazing images:

I looked at the picture and had to catch my breath such was the beauty of the message.
Refusing to be told how much he should grow, what were the limits of its existance Papi ate the fence...

We can't control nature, we can't submit it to our plans, our will, our ideas...

Thank you gorgeous tree for teaching us such a powerful lesson!

Kiss and make up....

Don't you love it when finally after the argument is over you kiss and make up?!
I have to say that, as much as I don't particularly enjoy the argument, the emotionally charged "making up" part is one of my favourite bits of a relationship!

I like power filled situations!
I like kisses that take away your breath, hugs where you can mould into the other person, looks that pierce the souls, where talking is unnecessary, nights that will remain engraved into your memory...

Though I know that only certain moments of a relationship will be like that, they are definitely the ones I look forward to the most!

It turns out that all mammals have the same instincts...
Us humans of course can make some kind of sense of what is happening, may express our personal feelings about the situation, plan a romantic or passionate way of making up after a fight...

But oh animals have been doing it way before we started!

Nature is wonderful, the capacity that us living beings have to feel love and affection, sorrow for having shaken the relationship, is outstanding...

Kissing and making up is the most beautiful way of nature of starting again where balance was corrupted!

And after you see this...

... you just want to do this!

Osteopornosis (n): A degenerate disease

I love communication and I have always had a fascination with words... I love to think about what words do. They express a feeling, a frame of mind, a thought, a condition, a place, a taste... Some follow sounds, some mean several different things at once.
To be able to express oneself in a way that others can really understand what we are trying to portray is a skill not too many people are able to muster.

My first spoken word was "banana" which I suppose it's quite different from the usual "mama" or "dada" that babies manage... Imagine my parents having to explain that to the family!!!
I guess it was the feeling that I had to make up for pointing at my dad and saying "banana" which pushed me towards becoming better at choosing the right words for the appropriate situations and in several different languages too.

So it really is no surprise I would feel attracted by a post about made up words with very clever meanings. I mean, how much actual knowledge of a language one must have to be able to create new words and attach a perfectly reasonable meaning to them... I applaud these minds!

Apparently every year The Washington Post's Style Invitational asks readers to take any word from the dictionary, alter it by adding, subtracting, or changing one letter, and supply a new definition.
I just about died laughing at a few of the results.

There are many but here are a few of my favourites besides the one I used as the title which definitely takes the prize:

- Sarchasm (n): The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person who doesn't get it.
- Inoculatte (v): To take coffee intravenously when you are running late.
- Dopeler effect (n): The tendency of stupid ideas to seem smarter when they come at you rapidly.
- Arachnoleptic fit (n.): The frantic dance performed just after you've accidentally walked through a spider web.
- Unfare (n) - The dollar you owe to the taxi driver before you have even moved.
- Ignoranus (n): A person who's both stupid and an *******.
- Negatile (n) - An area of the bathroom floor where, somehow, the scale registers you 5 lbs lighter.

For more of these very clever words go on the Sniglets site... rather funny!

Keep your cavities to yourself!

Here comes again, the subject of teeth cavities!

Even after having warned you already on the dangers of not brushing your teeth, I felt it an obligation to share also this very essential piece of news with you...
I quite frankly think it may change your view on a few things!

Everyone knows you can catch a cold or the flu...
Most likely you wouldn't be going to visit any of your friends who displayed high temperatures, a runny nose and cough...
But would you visit a friend who happens to have a cavity?

Well, as things stand now, I will certainly visit but with precaution! This because researchers have found that not only is it possible to spread cavities, but it occurs all the time.

While candy and sugar get all the blame (BAD chocolate bar, BAD!) , cavities are caused primarily by bacteria that cling to teeth and feast on particles of food from your last meal. One of the by-products they create is acid, which destroys your teeth enamel.

Just as a virus can be passed from one person to the next, so can these cavity-causing bacteria.

The most famous culprit is this dude called Streptococcus mutans. And with a name like that you sort of already know he's going to be trouble!
Infants and children are especially vulnerable to it, and several studies have shown that most pick it up from their carers... for example, when a mum tastes her child’s food to make sure it’s not too hot.

Now, at my not so young age, nobody tastes my food to make sure it's not too hot, but obviously there are issues between couples.

“In one instance, a patient in her 40s who had never had a cavity suddenly developed two cavities and was starting to get some gum disease,” one of the dentists participating in this study said after she learned the woman had started dating a man who hadn’t been to a dentist in several years.

So my dear readers, to reduce the risk of inheriting somebody's cavities I recommend you make friends with an awesome flossing and brushing technique, and start chewing sugar free gum as it promotes saliva and washes away plaque and bacteria.

I can do without people tasting my food to make sure it's ok but I can't quite say the same of a boyfriend!

A.I.

A.I. stands for Artificial Intelligence and it relates to the intelligence of machines and the branch of computer science that aims to create it.

AI textbooks define the field as "the study and design of intelligent agents" where an intelligent agent is a system that perceives its environment and takes actions that maximize its chances of success.

The field was founded on the claim that human intelligence can be so precisely described that it can be simulated by a machine. This of course raises philosophical issues about the nature of the mind and the ethics of creating artificial beings, issues which have been addressed by myth, fiction and philosophy since the beginning of times.

Applications of AI are already used in video games, speech recognition programs, expert system such as the MYCIN that was created in 1974 which diagnosed bacterial infections of the blood and suggested treatments. It generally did better than medical students or practicing doctors though, of course, its limitations were observed. Namely,its ontology included bacteria, symptoms and treatments and did not include patients, doctors, hospitals, death, recovery and events occurring in time.
Its interactions depended on a single patient being considered. Since the experts consulted by the knowledge engineers knew about patients, doctors, death, recovery, etc... it is clear that the knowledge engineers forced what the experts told them into a predetermined framework. In the present state of AI, this has to be true. The usefulness of current expert systems depends on their users having common sense.

Answers on AI basic questions are answered here on Stanford University website.

And it's exactly Stanford University that just a few days ago, announced that they were offering a free online course on Introduction to Artificial Intelligence and all of a sudden the university found itself submerged with 74,200 requests on enrollment!

"The vision is to change the world by bringing education to places that can't be reached today" one of the main lecturers said.

And how will the AI instructors grade so many students? They claim the use of extensive technologies including Google moderator service and different was to personalise exams to minimise cheating.

I personally find it amazing that such a subject as this could be opened up to everyone without any limits. Age of the applicants varies between people just come out of high school to retired.
Besides being an incredibly interesting course to take, the potential of such method is massive. Imagine smaller institutions being able to implement their courses by joining efforts with great institutions such as Stanford...

I don't know about you but I have already asked my dad to take the course with me... He will certainly come in handy with the maths and logic side of it... me? I'll be the expert clown making studying light-hearted!!!