Coping Strategies

[labelwench]

The 'idiot box' has just proclaimed that the most annoying word/phrase of 2010 remains the same as that of 2009, that being the term 'Whatever', as it is usually presented with dismissive body language, and there is nothing more aggravating to our kind than to be unable to produce a reaction in another.

'Whatever' could also be construed as taking a 'wait and see' approach before committing to a course of action, or indication that while one has options, they are limited, and that any one is equally acceptable.

Here is a rendition of 'Whatever' that I find quite enjoyable.

[labelwench]

Whatever 'IT' is, another use of 'Whatever' that has positive connotations.

Warning - Mushy country song, lol......

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7RJrNnRpVHg

[labelwench]

Waiting in an airport in Europe, or hunkered down on the East coast of Canada, there are thousands of people who will be implementing and learning new coping strategies in regard to weather related challenges.

Our modern technologies have insulated us from the reality of the world immediately outside our constructed habitat, and the artificial environment that we create inside, with ambiant heat, lighting, food preservation and preparation facilities, personal sanitation, and entertainment diversions galore, all depend on energy, mostly electricity which is supplied by means of visible transmission lines and stepped down to the power level required by branching subsidiaries and transformers, until it enters our abodes at the circuit box and breaker switches.

The world at our command by the flick of a switch, electricity providing the interface between our tangible and virtual amenities.

Yet, those powerful looking towers and cables endure the forces of extreme weather conditions, and in the face of the worst that nature can trot out, those mighty cables are more frail than the strands of a cobweb, and those towers can be snapped like matchsticks under the weight of sufficient freezing rain or tornado winds.

My last shift at work, -30C outdoors, the power went down at 8:40 a.m. The store was already open, the backup emergency exit lighting kicked in and everyone paused for a moment or two in case it was just a 'bump', a short-lived event. As the minutes drew on, I headed to our 'stash', and got for myself one of the small LED headlamps kept there. I had several boxes of coffee and tea still on my cart and I was determined not to have to put them back. The power remained out until after my shift had ended, and I had departed homeward, a ten minute delay to allow my vehicle to warm to operating temperature. The radio later reported that the outage had been resolved within about an hour, so the store would have been spared the neccessity of going to the next level of coping strategy, which involves the protection of frozen and perishable foods.

There is an optimum range of temperature that facilitates the health and well-being of our species, and prior to modern technology, the majority of our coping strategies would have been designed to address maintaining that range, and our greatest adversary would have been the weather.

Much has changed in our capacity to manipulate our immediate habitat, yet one thing remains unchanged.

The weather remains our greatest challenge.

Additional coping strategies required.

[labelwench]

The coping strategies of a society or a group within that society may be invoked by actions of an individual or individual(s) that make such group uncomfortable.

Societies establish codes of conduct, or culture, which frequently deviate between groups, though some 'taboos' appear to be consistent among them.

Excommunication, incarceration, shunning and banning are means by which society partitions itself from individuals that are perceived to be threatening to the societal 'norm'.

While physical imprisonment and/or solitary confinement is considered to be the most severe form of punishment, short of the death sentence, I would question that we really have no clear way to measure the damage done to the mind of an individual by the exclusion of their participation in society.

To walk among the masses, yet not be acknowledged, for one has been shunned by one's own kind, is not much of a liberty.

Among the animal species that utilize this form of group discipline, it is equivalent to a sentence of death.

Then again, for those who are strong enough, it may be a great relief to be liberated from the millstone of antiquated 'civilized conduct' which is but a thin veneer for licensed mass manipulation if one dares examine closely.

Taken from 'The Grand Design'.

Because it is so impractical to use the underlying physical laws to predict human behavior, we adopt what is called an effective theory. In physics, an effective theory is a framework created to model certain observed phenomena without describing in detail all of the underlying processes. For example, we cannot solve exactly the equations governing the gravitational interactions of every atom in a person's body with every atom in the earth. But for all practical purposes the gravitational force between a person and the earth can be described in terms of just a few numbers, such as the person's total mass. Similarly, we cannot solve the equations governing the behavior of complex atoms and molecules, but we have developed an effective theory called chemistry that provides an adequate explanation of how atoms and molecules behave in chemical reactions without accounting for every detail of the interactions. In the case of people, since we cannot solve the equations that determine our behavior, we use the effective theory that people have free will. The study of our will and of the behavior that arises from it, is the science of psychology. Economics is also an effective theory, based on the notion of free will plus the assumption that people evaluate their possible alternative courses of action and choose the best. The effective theory is only moderately successful in predicting behavior because, as we all know, decisions are often not rational or are based on a defective analysis of the consequences of the choice. That is why the world is in such a mess.

[labelwench]

Sleep, in sufficient amount and quality, is an essential element and perhaps one of the least appreciated coping strategies available to us.

In an increasingly competitive and fast paced world, commuting, work, family, community and even recreation are all activities that compete for our time and energy. So many experiences to be had, and no one lifetime long enough to embrace them all, and so many choose to cut down on sleep time, with the logic that there will be plenty of time for sleep once one is dead.

Right.

That one might well end up dead sooner rather than later due to a misjudgment caused by lack of sleep needs to be factored in to this equation.

Working contrary to our circadian rhythms can make the attainment of sufficient sleep an even greater challenge, as I know from personal experience and the observation of many dozens of co-workers who were not able to find a satisfactory balance. Those who have stayed the course for six years or more are all subject to chronic mood disorders directly proportional to how elusive sleep may be at any given time.

My focus for this year is to change my sleep habits, through sheer application of mind over matter and an understanding of how nutrition, activity and light exposure plays into our body response and ability to achieve restful sleep.

The goal: to average 7 hours of sleep per night.

The reason: sleep is essential to good health.

[greenbug]

I fallowed this from you other post made in timeparticales post....

http://www.ted.com/talks/brene_brown...erability.html

[labelwench]

I fallowed this from you other post made in timeparticales post....

http://www.ted.com/talks/brene_brown...erability.html

That was an excellent dialogue on the topic of vulnerability and more importantly, that we cannot exclude one portion of the spectrum of emotion without impacting the rest, though it is ever the nature of our species to endeavor to compartmentalize pain and hold it in isolation from joy, which we seek as the preferred experience, for obvious reason.

A researching story-teller........but of course.......story-telling is the oldest form of teaching, unless it would be music. Even then, the story is told through the notes, and the words matter not at all........the story still comes through.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7S0f...e=more_related

[labelwench]

Our species has one coping strategy that may be rather unique, and that is our ability to create technology that can aid us in a variety of ways. A number of animals have demonstrated cleverness in solving problems and in using rudimentary tools, yet we are capable of changing the surface of the planet in both modest and extreme manner.

Another species, the horse, was our first 'leg up' so to speak, and those cultures who domesticated the horse found such to be advantageous.

Then came, and continues, our relationship with the internal combustion engine and it's demand for fossil fuels, which has brought us to a contentious realization that our solution of design, is now become most problematical as we seek the path forward.

A trip down memory lane reveals the pride we have always felt in the technology of our making. Reflection can often be a useful strategy when one needs to pause and ponder before proceeding.

[labelwench]

I was rather impressed with the following presentation, an example of a 'coping strategy' in engineering design and simplicity. The Willy's Jeep is still seen today on the highways of the Yukon on occasion, especially during our Canada Day Parade, held on July 1st.

There is something to value in a design that has withstood the test of time, IMO.

Army Guys Strip a "Jeep" to The Bone and Rebuild Her in 4 Minutes/They Drive In and Drive away.This Is Something you Might Not have ever seen Before,Halifax Downtown July 2009

[labelwench]

Among 'coping strategies', I would number seed banks.

The Svalbard Global Seed Vault -- a master backup to the world's other seed banks -- has now secured more than 740,000 samples since it opened in a remote Norwegian archipelago in 2008. That represents an estimated three-quarters of the biological diversity of the world's major food crops.

With the shipment from the Syria-based International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas, almost its entire collection is now backed up in Svalbard, Fowler told The Associated Press.

"I think the events unfolding in Syria obviously underline the importance of having safety duplication outside of a country," he said, adding the facility had not been damaged in the military crackdown on an anti-government uprising.

He noted that wars destroyed seed banks in Iraq and Afghanistan. Another one in Egypt was looted during last year's uprising.

The Svalbard Global Seed Vault -- sometimes referred to as a doomsday vault -- is designed to withstand global warming, earthquakes and even nuclear strikes.

Read more: http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/SciTech/20...#ixzz1ngwFHYxO