Sardines and Kisses

 I've been watching an interesting documentary on Discovery, which studies what happens to the brain when we are in love.
Seems there are two basic enzymes involved - Dopamine and Serotonin.
Obviously a lot more is involved. But they say there is a very close correlation between the brain in love, and a brain that is mad.

Why not? The desire to press your lips against a strange person, and take off all your clothes, has got to overpower all rational thoughts and 'normal' behaviours that are intended to keep you safe.
It also seems that although the first kind of love (lust) is the most powerful, we have a few other kinds, intended to help us cope with the consequences of lust. We need to develop feelings of romance, and then attachment (as opposed to short intense bursts of love) otherwise we'll be incapable of dealing with the ongoing mayhem of living with someone, and living with miniature versions of ourselves.

It's interesting what cues actually excite feelings of love in us. Shared experiences, or striking contrasts. Smells, sounds, movements - one woman said she immediately fell in love with someone based on how he was walking. And they say women may think the t-shirt of their man in the wash basket is smelly, but imbedded in that smell are plenty of pheromones. I remember someone saying to me, "I just love your smell," and that's without deodorant. And obviously, one is hardly aware of one's own smell, especially if it's not summer. Someone else was in love with my feet.
The smells people give off (not including from our feet) leave indicators for the state of their immune system, which creates unique cues in specific individuals.

I meant to go hiking this past weekend, but then cancelled due to illness. I heard that there were over 30 people in a cramped little hut, that was very sweaty and noisy, and basically everyone had a horrible night. I have been to that hut in Soraksan. It's situated on a kind've saddle. Glad I missed that. But would like to go hiking when the mountains turn into flaming autumn.

I sent Jim Kunstler an email, after watching The Manchurian Candidate. I asked him what his opinion is of some of the conspiracies surrounding the Rothschild's. I meant to post some information on it, but then noticed many of the writers do seem to have specific agendas. They are either fundamentalist Christians or conspiracy buffs. These are not the best sources for facts. Mr Kunstler echoed this view. He writes:

...this really gets into a jewish conspiracy story that I just don't think holds any water.
There may be all sorts of conspiracies in operation concerning the finance markets, but I don't believe this particular story.

A reviewer called Richard Cohen, writing for the Columbia Daily Tribune, on The Manchurian Candidate:

It is a film about "them," about "city hall" - you can’t fight it - and about a deracinated type of anti-Semitism in which the mysterious evil ones are not Jews anymore and not really Gentiles, either, but merely the veiled powerful who control so much. The original movie drew its power from the facts of its times and so, in a way, does this one. Not a single reviewer I read scoffed at the premise: Halliburton instead of the commies? Sure. Why not?

Finally, I've noticed in the news that more people have died recently of bird flu in Indonesia, and that a flu is spreading in many states of America that has jumped from horses to dogs. This flu is thought to have come from pig flu. This raises an important question. Why are we suddenly seeing these super flus, jumping around from pigs to horses to dogs, or from birds to people? Here's a theory. The bacon you buy at your supermarket, the eggs, are all grown in the same awful, crowded, filthy conditions. The animals are kept in very unhealthy conditions, and are pumped full of vaccines and antibiotics (basically preservatives). Obviously, in these conditions, the bugs simply up the ante, until they find a way through this artifical barrier. The result is flus and staphs that sting.

The unsual warm weather patterns that our changing climate predicates, means that these bugs will find new places to lurk, and new, vulnerable populations that were previously inaccesible. Mosquitoes, for example, are restricted to areas that are warm and wet. To the extent that these areas increase, so will the threat of mosquito borne diseases.

A great way to stay healthy though, is to fall in love, or love and be loved by someone. So get to it.