RANDOM THOUGHTS AS WINTER WINDS DOWN
by Terrence Shulman
The United States President Joe Biden gives his first State of The Union address tonight (March 1st). And rarely has the country been more divided or has a president-and our country–faced more challenges. The State of the Union is in a state of challenge on many fronts. And it’s hard not to be anxious about the future.
It’s been exactly two years since Covid hit the U.S. with full-force and began leading to a wave of illness, death, and lockdowns. By a year later this time–in 2021–we started administering vaccines and I was able to see my mother at an outside restaurant last St. Patrick’s Day (her 82nd birthday) and I’m so glad I did as she passed away this past December from Alzheimers.
We are approaching nearly 80 million distinct Covid infections and nearly 1 million deaths in the U.S. (435 million cases and 6 million deaths worldwide). And, two years later, there still persists significant controversy on vaccinations, masks, and appropriate Covid responses worldwide and, especially, here in the U.S.
Russia invaded Ukraine one week ago–just after the Beijing Winter Olympics ended. And the free world is pushing back hard. This is the first such ground invasion of a country since the end of World War II nearly 80 years ago. There seems to be a split between the forces for democracy and freedom and the forces of dictatorship and fascism… with the threat of a nuclear war looming.
Climate change continues to worsen, as does inflation, political and social polarization, and domestic and social violence is on the rise.
Yet, if recovery from addiction can teach us anything, it’s that we can’t give up, we can’t give in. We must not leave before the miracle happens. And, we do need a miracle here.
The Serenity Prayer can certainly be applied to the dramas of our world-at-large and to the goings-on of our individual lives which have their own dramas and challenges. There is so much we cannot control but there is also a lot we can–namely, our responses to our problems and the worlds problems. Now, more than ever, we need to be part of the solution, not part of the problem.
Can we practice patience and kindness to ourselves and to others-even those we disagree with? This doesn’t mean we let others walk all over us, but can we pray for others, can we stand firm against without meeting them on their low-levels? Yes, we can.
Can we comfort our children who are going through something–this pandemic and this polarization–that is causing them epidemic levels of anxiety and despair? We need to stay relatively calm and help them through these times of uncertainty. You don’t have to be religious to have faith in humanity and in our collective abilities to find a way past the worst of our instincts back to the goodness in most of us.
As winter begins to thaw and spring begins to bloom, let the flowers of peace in our hearts and minds bloom as well. Otherwise, we’re headed for a truly silent spring.
THE SCIENCE OF LUCK!
Is The Phenomenon Real? Can It Be Harnessed?
by
Alexandra Ossola (Popular Science, March 17, 2015)
Finding money on the street may seem like a lucky break, but it might be more accurate to thank yourself. Researchers across various disciplines have attempted to decode whether there’s an actual measurable aspect to what we understand as luck. Many of these studies have found that what a person might perceive as “luck” has more to do with psychology than probability; “luck” is actually just her own positive attitude that keeps her open to new opportunities or perceiving patterns in random acts of chance. Here are some of the latest findings.
Games of Chance
You just flipped four heads in a row, so the next one has to be tails, right? Wrong-the odds of flipping heads or tails is still 50/50, exactly the same as it has been every other time. This is called the “gambler’s fallacy,” and, according to a study published earlier this month in PNAS, our brains may be seeking out these sorts of patterns. “A major function of the human brain is to deal with the uncertainty in the real world in order to find regularities,” says Yanlong Sun, a professor of microbial pathogenesis and immunology at Texas A&M College of Medicine and one of the study authors. Our neurons detect these patterns naturally and pay special attention to their timing, Sun says. Neurons prefer alternating patterns-it’s the brain’s way of “regressing to the mean,” to correct for patterns that seem statistically unlikely. “Our study shows that our brains are probably smarter than we previously have thought, in that they are able to automatically pick up some very subtle yet important statistical structures in the environment,” he says. But this new understanding doesn’t change how Sun feels about luck overall-“As both a scientist and a person, I do believe in luck, that it is something I cannot manipulate or operate on.
“As both a scientist and a person, I do believe in luck.”
Lucky Streaks
When you’re placing bets on a game like craps or roulette that is based on chance, it turns out that your own betting shifts your odds. A person who wins two bets in a row has a 57 percent chance of winning the next one, but a person who has lost two bets in a row has only a 40 percent chance of winning the next. Why? According to a study published last year, people again fear that their bets will regress to the mean- that if they won, they are more likely to lose the next time, so they compensate for it by making safer bets each successive time.
When people who have been winning take safer bets, it means they’ll probably keep winning; when people have been losing, they take riskier bets to try to win, which means they actually lose more. The actual event the gambler bets on doesn’t become any more or less probable, but past outcomes affect how the bettor allocates funds the next time around.
Superstitions
Crossing your fingers, knocking on wood-most of us don’t know where superstitions like these came from, even if a lot of us practice them fairly often. But several not in the way that we think they do.
In one, from 2010, golfers who were told that they were using a “lucky ball” performed significantly better than those who were told that theirs was “the same ball everyone else had used so far.” The test subjects also performed better when they were allowed to hold on to their “lucky charms” from home while solving an anagram problem. The researchers hypothesized that the people with some lucky charms at their side persisted at problems longer because they felt more effective, like they had the assistance of some other power. It’s the same logic that Alcoholics Anonymous has used to help people get sober and stay that way -people feel empowered when they think that someone else is helping them, so they actually do better at the tasks at hand.
Lucky People
Luck doesn’t just “happen,” even for people who consider themselves lucky Richard Wisemen, a professor of psychology at the University of Hertfordshire in England, has done a number of studies to figure out what distinguishes a lucky person from an unlucky one. In one study, he asked people who identified as luck and as unlucky to read a newspaper. On one half page of a newspaper, he wrote in large letters: “Tell the experimenter you have seen this and win £250.” The people who said they were lucky were more likely to see the ad, Wiseman wrote, and the “unlucky” people seemed to demonstrate more anxiety, which detracted from their powers of observation. Now, Wiseman has “four principles” of luck on his web site, and they all have to do with being open to new experiences and observing opportunities as they present themselves.
“Unlucky” people seemed to demonstrate more anxiety.
Serendipity
Running into an old friend could be fortuitous, resulting in a profitable professional partnership, or a rekindled romance. Stephann Makri, a lecturer in information interaction at City University London, has done a number of studies to determine what serendipity is, based on how people perceive it.
“I think that luck means different things to different people-some people use it as synonym for serendipity,” he says. “But others were clear that the two were different-luck was totally out of our control and there’s nothing we can do to influence it. They think that serendipity can’t be controlled but it could be influenced.”
In one study published last year, Makri asked a number of creative professionals what they do to increase their chances of a serendipitous encounter. “They included things like varying their routine, working in different environments and with different people, mixing things up in the workplace, and just generally doing things differently to avoid getting stuck in the same routine,” he says.
When we think back on a lucky event, it’s often accompanied by the understanding of how that changed our lives for the better, which Makri calls an insight. So while these chance encounters can’t be controlled, people can do a lot to put themselves in a particular place and time and hope that it’s the right one. An open, positive, go-getter attitude also makes people more likely to appreciate an opportunity and to take advantage of it.
NATIONAL SPRING CLEANING WEEK IS MARCH 27 – APRIL 1 Here’s An 8-Hour Spring-Cleaning Guide From Start to Finish!
by
Lynn Andriani
Go beyond the weekly dusting, sweeping and mopping to get your home deep-cleaned-all in just one day
9 Α.Μ.-10 A.M.: Bathroom
Vacuum and wipe the walls and ceilings. If you clear them annually of the almost imperceptible grime that builds up, then you won’t have to deal with the impossible-to-remove kind that can accumulate if they’re left untouched for a few years. Vacuum first, using the brush attachment. Then, wipe them with all-purpose cleaner, which is fine for painted walls. Don’t forget the wall that’s behind you every morning when you do your hair and makeup; it could be coated in hairspray, perfume or other beauty products.
Toss any throw rugs into the washing machine.
Wash mirrors and the insides of windows. Use microfiber cloths (they won’t leave lint).
Spray and soak. Steve Mulloy, director of housekeeping at Hilton Orlando Bonnet Creek, recommends rubbing strong cleaning agents into shower walls, tubs, floors and sinks and then leaving to handle a task in another room. Fifteen or 20 minutes later (you can go move the rugs from the washer to the dryer), come back and rinse everything from the top down, starting with the shower-head. Take the same tack with the toilet, moving from the top of the tank to the rim, bowl and base. And don’t use the cloths you used in the bathroom anywhere else before laundering them in very hot water.
Rinse the floor. After you’ve let the cleanser soak, as mentioned above, wipe the floor with a water-soaked the right way to wash all those sheets and dust ruffles mop on your way out.
Next: Airing out the bedrooms, and the right way to wash all those sheets and dust ruffles
10 Α.Μ.-12:30P.M.: Bedrooms
Vacuum and wipe walls and ceilings, and dust all surfaces. Pay special attention to switch plates and the outside edges of doors, where people tend to grab.
Let it breathe. A good airing will reduce the allergens and germs in mattresses, even if you can’t lug them outside. Follow the advice of the Victorian era’s go-to guide, Mrs. Beeton’s Book of Household Management: “Throw the bed open, by taking off the clothes; open the windows (except in rainy weather), and leave the room to air.” In Mrs. Beeton’s day, housemaids left the windows open for a half hour, but if it isn’t too cold, a few hours is even better.
Head to the washing machine. Once all the linens-sheets, pillowcases, quilts, duvet covers, mattress pads, dust ruffles, shams are off the beds, wash them in order of what goes on the bed first (i.e., start with dust ruffles and mattress pads; end with shams) so you can put them back on the beds as they come out of the dryer and not have to worry about them sitting in a heap and getting wrinkled. If you’re switching over to lighter quilts, wash the winter bedding before putting it away, because moths and other insects are attracted to body oil, perspiration and perfume.
Clean window treatments. For heavy drapes, use the upholstery attachment on your vacuum, or have them dry-cleaned; light drapes can go in the dryer on the fluff cycle with a dryer sheet.
Wash mirrors and the insides of windows.
12:30 P.M.-2 P.M.: Kitchen
Clean the refrigerator and freezer. Empty the contents, store them in a cooler, turn off the fridge, and let the shelves and drawers come to room temperature before you wash them, since glass and ceramic parts could crack if they come into contact with hot water when they are cold. (You can move to the next task while you’re waiting.) Once they’ve warmed up, wipe with a mixture of 2 tablespoons baking soda and a quart of hot water. Rinse and dry. Go over the door seals with hot water and mild dishwashing liquid, and pluck out crumbs and other debris. Dry them well.
Degrease cooking appliances. Take off stove grates and other removable parts, and scrub them with soapy steel wool pads (if the grease just won’t come off, try letting them sit overnight in an airtight bag with a quarter cup of ammonia; the next day, wipe them with a clean cloth). Clean the oven. To get stuck-on food particles off the inside of the microwave, put a microwave-safe bowl of water with some lemon juice inside and hoot it to boiling for 2 or 2 minutes The stoom will locson aunk and the lomon’s acid will hole lift.
Clean window treatments and wash the insides of windows.
Wash surfaces and cabinets. The tops of cabinets and the fridge may be sticky from grease, so a solution of warm water and dishwashing liquid will work best. You can also use the mixture in drawers and on shelves (and spray antibacterial cleanser inside the cabinet where you store trash). Pay attention to the utensils drawer and the pantry, since they collect the most crumbs.
Sweep, vacuum and mop floors.
Next: The living room-and the trick to safely cleaning your electronics
2 P.M.-5 P.M.: Living Room, Family Room and Dining Room
Dust ceiling fans. Donna Smallin, author of The One-Minute Cleaner, prefers an extendable duster with a microfiber head that bends to a 90-degree angle so she doesn’t have to get on a ladder. It’s also useful for the tops of bookcases and shelves.
Vacuum and wipe walls and ceilings.
Care for your couch. Sofas and upholstered chairs get tons of use. Yet, says Sim Fern, co-founder of Mod Restoration, a furniture-repair shop in Brooklyn, some people never clean them. Just because you don’t see stains doesn’t mean there aren’t dust mites present (they feed on skin flakes shed by humans and animal dander). Many Lowe’s and Home Depot stores rent upholstery-cleaning machines or carpet-cleaning machines with upholstery wands, which will give your sofa and chairs a deep clean.
Wash your lightbulbs. Give them a wipe with a damp microfiber cloth, since a dirty bulb emits 20 percent less light.
Clean window treatments and wash the insides of windows.
Clean and dust electronics. Spray compressed air into crevices. Then, moving from top to bottom, use microfiber or electrostatic cloths. Clean underneath speakers, stereos, computers, DVD players and TVs too. Wipe away from ventilation areas so you don’t push dust back in.
Sweep out your fireplace, storing unused logs.
Clean the carpets.
Order pizza for dinner.
HAVE A SAFE MONTH & NEW YEAR, AND REMEMBER: LIFE IS WHAT WE MAKE OF IT!