Just Cannot Stay Away From the Internet

I am one of those people who go by the saying: if it’s not broken, don’t mess with it—for the most part anyway. I pride myself in being able to control temptations (except food); all I have to do is modify my mindset. When I go out shopping and I find a real cute dress, although not one that I absolutely must have, I tell myself I would come back for it when it goes on sale. I end up not going back for it because I don’t want to pay bus fare. I save myself at least $40.

Technology, as we know it today, is taking over our lives. We feel naked when we realize we left the house without our cell phones. Our nights revolve around the contents of TV Guide. Internet security is a rising concern.

Within the scope of people I know and interact with, I’ve noticed a trend in modern technology usage. People who live in the city tend to rely more on their computers, cell phones, and internet. On the other hand, people from the country do fine without being connected.

I gave up television when I went to college. I never got into the habit of pursuing certain shows anyway. There were a lot of other things going on. Studying was one of them, of course. Not having a TV is no big deal for me.

I can’t remember the days when not everyone had a cell phone. What did people do if they got stood up for a shopping date? I can go a few hours without my cell phone. I say hours because there are only a few certain circumstances where you don’t have your phone. For instance, your battery died because you underestimated your battery indicator. Before “smart phones,” I mainly use them for the time. It’s too much of a hassle to wear a watch; for one, it’s difficult for me to read analog.

The computer is a hard one to judge. I’m not a gamer, so I’m not so much as addicted to my computer as they are. I do need my computer for iTunes and Microsoft Word and Excel, but alternatives can easily be utilized. The computer is just more convenient.

As for the internet…*look away*. I admit defeat. All of you admit it too. You can’t survive more than two days without internet. The time you went camping or Las Vegas does not count. As I said earlier, I take pride in being able to resist almost all temptations. I’ve been living without internet for two weeks and counting. I thought I would be used to it by now; but I’m not. I scavenge any small amount of signal I can get. I’m almost desperate enough to drive five miles to the rest area to get wireless internet.

As city dwellers, we are underprivileged. We know everything that is happening around the world, but we don’t know what’s going on in our homes, literally. Although it’s killing me not to be connected to the global community, I take this opportunity to cultivate domestic skills, hone my talents, and self-teach myself things I would’ve never been able to learn with all the distractions.

Revisiting Human Nature: Review of Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels

It took me three attempts and a month to recount Gulliver’s lifetime travels.

I started reading this when I was 13 years old. I never got past the Lilliputians.

I finally decided to give Gulliver’s Travels another try. I thought to myself “maybe I was just too young to appreciate Swift.”

Through my perseverance, I found that Swift’s work is brilliant. It is simple yet complex at the same time. As many of you know, Gulliver’s Travels is famously known for its satire of the human nature. Each of the inhabitants of Gulliver’s destination has contrasting characteristics/traits of the preceding destination. Gulliver is big/small/sensible/ignorant, the countries are complex/simple/scientific/natural, and forms of Government are worse/better/worse/better than England's. Gulliver's view between parts contrasts with its other coinciding part — Gulliver sees the tiny Lilliputians as being vicious and unscrupulous, and then the king of Brobdingnag sees Europe in exactly the same light. Gulliver sees the Laputians as unreasonable, and Gulliver's Houyhnhnm master sees humanity as equally so.

I was about to stop reading because the plot became repetitive. Gulliver would set out on a voyage and meet with some misfortune that causes him to land in these strange territories. He takes residence for a large amount of time in each locale while learning the population’s traditions and language. By some absurd manner, Gulliver always finds a way back to England.

The first two parts were not too interesting. However, one’s perspective on things become extremely distorted depending on your relative size to the environment. In Gulliver’s case, being a minute organism compared to the dwellers in Brobdingnang brought him to realize the repulsiveness of the physical human feature. He was small enough to see the unevenness of the Brobdingnangians skin caused by the pores. He was also small enough to see the excrement flies leave behind. If I experienced what Gulliver has seen, I would immediately become embarrassed. I can imagine the Lilliputians feeling just as disgusted. Also, be very conscious of where flies are landing.

I am glad I continued reading. The found the third part very meaningful and thought-provoking, and hilarious. The unreasonableness of the inhabitants of Lagado makes it very amusing. Gulliver visits an academy established to develop new theories on agriculture and construction and to initiate projects to improve the lives of the city’s inhabitants. However, the theories have never produced any results and the new techniques have left the country in ruins. Gulliver meets a scientist trying to turn excrement back into food, an architect trying to build a house from the roof down, and an agronomist designing a method of plowing fields with hogs by first burying food in the ground and then letting the hogs loose to dig it out.

In Luggnagg, Gulliver was introduced to struldbrugs, immortal ones who are forever old rather than forever young. When asked what he thought life would be like if he was a struldbrug, Gulliver answers by saying he would try to obtain all riches and knowledge. However, the king of Luggnagg advises Gulliver that being immortal is a curse rather than a godsend.

Before reading Gulliver’s response, I knew that would be his response. That would be the typical response of the majority of people. I remember having a similar discussion as we were reading Natalie Babbitt’s Tuck Everlasting in middle school. Would I want to live forever? I would have said yes back then, but now I would not want to live forever. Death is like a deadline. You would not live your life to the fullest or accomplish anything if you knew you had all the time in the world. This begs for another question and a topic for another time: why wealth and knowledge?

The last part was also very serious. In the country of the Houyhnhnms, horses are the master race and human-like creatures, called Yahoos, are the subordinates. The horses were skeptical about Gulliver as he looked exactly like the Yahoos, except with clothes on. However, he is eventually taken in by the horse household after exhibiting some notion of reason. As time goes by, Gulliver comes to both admire and emulate the Houyhnhnms and their lifestyle, and rejects the human race as merely Yahoos. He returns to England. However, he is unable to reconcile himself to living among Yahoos; he becomes a recluse, remaining in his house, largely avoiding his family and his wife, and spending several hours a day speaking with the horses in his stables.

This is the only book I’ve ever read that incited such contemplation. The main point of Swift’s novel is not to recount Gulliver’s voyages, but to view the transformation of Gulliver’s character as he journey’s from place to place. He progresses from a cheery optimist at the start of the first part to the pompous misanthrope of the book's conclusion. Every interaction had an impact on Gulliver’s attitude towards humanity; just as every interaction we have with others effect our behavior.

Health Benefits of Coffee

I’m not a big coffee drinker. I get coffee once in a while for the taste, not necessarily for the caffeine effect. I recently started working, and I realize I need the caffeine. At least two a day-- one for getting through the morning and one for after lunch. Now I understand the morning rush at Starbucks and their afternoon special, where you can get a Grande cold beverage for $2 after 2pm if you have that morning’s receipt.

I’ve always heard that coffee is bad for you. So where should you get your daily caffeine? A Coke in the morning doesn’t sound too appetizing. Maybe some Lipton tea will do.

Contrary to belief, coffee may be beneficial to your health. According to various studies, moderate coffee consumption (3-5 cups a day) has shown apparent reductions in the risks of Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, heart, disease, diabetes mellitus type 2, cirrhosis of the liver, and gout. There are also studies that say coffee drinkers are less likely to get certain types of cancer, starting with colorectal cancer.

Other chemical components in coffee other than caffeine are cafestol and kahweol. Cafestol and kahweol are fat-soluble compounds known as diterpenes, which are present in the oil derived from coffee beans. Both compounds are extracted by hot water but are retained by a paper filter. In the 1980s, it was found that these compounds raise serum cholesterol levels in humans. These compounds may be responsible for anti-cancer effect; however the full mechanism is not clear. Both kahweol and cafestol were shown to produce a broad range of biochemical effects resulting in a reduction of the effect of several carcinogens including PAHs (polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, a class of chemicals produced by burning organic material), aflatoxin B1 (a mycotoxin) and others. Different mechanisms appear to be involved in these protective effects, but the mechanism has not been elucidated.

Coffee beans come from the Coffee plant. Since it’s a plant, it contains a large and diverse amount of group of compounds including cinnamic acids, benzoic acids, flavonoids, proanthocyanidins, stilbenes, coumarins, lignans and lignins, collectively called plant phenols. Plant phenols are shown to contain strong antioxidant activity. Believe it or not, research shows that coffee is the number one source for antioxidants, due to its high amounts of chlorogenic acid and caffeic acid (also in red wine). It has recently been demonstrated that humans absorb about 33% of ingested chlorogenic acid and about 95% of ingested caffeic acid.

The health effects you hear about coffee is usually due to its caffeine content. Depending on the type of coffee and preparation, the caffeine content can vary greatly. On average, a single shot of espresso (30 mL) can be expected to contain the following amounts of caffeine.

• Drip coffee: 115–175 mg (560–850 mg/L)
• Espresso: 60 mg (2000 mg/L)
• Brewed/Pressed: 80–135 mg (390–650 mg/L)
• Instant: 65–100 mg (310–480 mg/L)
• Decaf brewed: 3-4 mg
• Decaf instant: 2-3 mg

Caffeine is a central nervous system stimulant. Like alcohol and nicotine, caffeine readily crosses the blood–brain barrier that separates the bloodstream from the interior of the brain. Once in the brain, the principal mode of action is as an antagonist of adenosine receptors. The caffeine molecule is structurally similar to adenosine, and binds to adenosine receptors on the surface of cells without activating them (an "antagonist" mechanism of action). Otherwise, brain adenosine acts to protect the brain by suppressing neural activity and by increasing blood flow.

An acute overdose of caffeine, usually in excess of about 300 milligrams, dependent on body weight and level of caffeine tolerance, can result in a state of central nervous system over-stimulation called caffeine intoxication, or colloquially the "caffeine jitters". The symptoms of caffeine intoxication are not unlike overdoses of other stimulants. It may include restlessness, nervousness, excitement, insomnia, flushing of the face, increased urination, gastrointestinal disturbance, muscle twitching, a rambling flow of thought and speech, irritability, irregular or rapid heartbeat, and psychomotor agitation. In cases of much larger overdoses, mania, depression, lapses in judgment, disorientation, disinhibition, delusions, hallucinations, and psychosis may occur, and rhabdomyolysis (breakdown of skeletal muscle tissue) can be provoked.

Now you don’t have to worry about drinking too much coffee. However, you may want to find an alternative caffeine source, like ginseng, if you are worried about the “caffeine jitters.”