Archive for the ‘Anthropology’ Category

What is Best In Life?

Permit me a bit of amateur psychology. I think we in the Western world would have to try very hard to miss that a lot of us spend time seeking a handful of things. We pursue goods that are easy to reach. Food and alcohol, sex, contest, and music are the most obvious examples.

Food and alcohol do their work immediately, with the taste, and then with the feelings of satiety and/or relaxation.

Assuming one is not starving or dying of thirst, it is fairly common knowledge that the strongest of physical passions is the sexual. Basically everyone thinks sex is good. Just the thought of it can cause people to obsess, and even the lacking of it can satisfy in other ways (e.g., the feelings of having a “crush” can themselves be pleasant). We seek and give sex, broadly considered, in various ways. A good number of regular Western pastimes involve indulging in this, if not always with the intent of actually having sexual intercourse, then at least with the intent of enjoying the sensations that imagination brings. Romance movies generate “crush” feelings; pornography more directly aims at sexual titillation. Advertisements often play on one or both pleasures. The lyrics of much music uses these tropes. The general habits of the clubbing world are obviously all circling around this particular passion.

People also enjoy defeating threats. The hope of victory, the risk of failure, and the adrenaline rush that drives us to seek the first in the face of the second. The two most obvious instruments for creating this sensation are sports events and action films.

Then there’s the good of music. I’ve quoted Richard Hooker before on this blog on the power of music, but here he is again:

The reason hereof is an admirable facility which music hath to express and represent to the mind, more inwardly than any other sensible mean, the very standing, rising, and falling, the very steps and inflections every way, the turns and varieties of all passions whereunto the mind is subject; yea so to imitate them, that whether it resemble unto us the same state wherein our minds already are, or a clean contrary, we are not more contentedly by the one confirmed, than changed and led away by the other.

Music is so beloved because it has the power to alter our moods in a very direct way. Though we may lack a certain good in reality, music can still make a chimera dance on our mind’s stage.  Pop music is certainly not an exception here. As Roger Scruton notes:

This surely accurately describes the way in which contemporary pop—from Crystal Castles to Lady Gaga—is received by its devotees. I am not talking of the words. I am talking about the musical experience. It is surely right to speak of a new kind of listening, maybe a kind of listening that is not listening at all, when there is no melody to speak of, when the rhythm is machine made, and when the only invitation to dance is an invitation to dance with oneself. And it is easier to imagine a kind of pop that is not like that: pop that is with the listener and not at him. … The externalized beat of pop is shoved at us. You cannot easily move with it, but you can submit to it. … And the dance is not something that you do, but something that happens to you—a pulse on which you are suspended.

This aspect of pop music might be one of its main attractions: in its common forms, it overwhelms with the passions. It forces people to feel. Of course, a great deal of it aims at producing one or both of the previously mentioned passions: sexual euphoria or something like what the Greeks would have called thumos.

These goods are the easiest to reach, and so become the highest end for many. As Wittgenstein said in another context, people are captured by an image, a picture of something within their grasp, and often lose desire for any others beyond their immediate reach. But there are other kinds of goods, ones that often have more of a slow burn than a quick sizzle. Yet these kinds of goods can provide a more deep and lasting enjoyment of life than the ones above.

Imagine accomplishing a difficult objective. You decide to do something that seems like a good idea,  you eventually face opposition from nature or other people, you persevere and reach the goal. How do you feel? Bored? Of course not. The experience is often more pleasant than it would have been had there been no resistance at all. The victory through struggle gives knowledge of self as adequate to overcome difficulties, and to know this is to know something good. Further, you will have the good you originally sought.

Another good difficult to reach, but which provides much deeper and lasting satisfaction, is friendship. Knowing and loving another human being in a significant way. Human beings are the height of creation. Their strength, compassion, intelligence, creativity, beauty, humour, quirkiness, majesty, and piety, both in combination and separately, when deeply appreciated, can bring much joy to the people who experience them. But these are things that can only be discovered with time and effort; one must decide to sacrifice time and comfort and, instead of seeking directly pleasurable pursuits, to endure boredom, awkward moments, moral flaws and injuries, weaknesses and insecurities, and any number of other things that make people unattractive. Yet when another person is deeply known and loved, the happiness is almost incomparable.

Then there are intellectual goods. The human capacity to understand reality abstractly, as a coherent whole, to ask and answer the question “why?”, is arguably what distinguishes us most from the kingdom of nature. And curious people fulfill this potential when they encounter an intriguing but difficult question, and then pursue the answer with determination. When they reach their destination, a deeper understanding of the “why?” produces a sensation that artists and poets have long compared to elemental forces of nature: fire, light, electricity, and even a kind of intoxication. To seek and to find wisdom is one of the most exquisite pleasures human beings know.

But the highest good is not any of these things in themselves. It is nothing other than God. The most pleasurable good that human beings can pursue is understanding of the Creator, the ultimate answer to “why?”, and friendship with this being, the one who contains every good quality in its most perfect form. But of all pleasures, this is the hardest one to reach, and it cannot initially be reached through the kind of effort to accomplish that I mentioned above. Indeed, Jesus taught that it was impossible unless God gave us a taste for it first: “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him.” “Whoever is of God hears the words of God. The reason why you do not hear them is that you are not of God.” God rescues the soul by giving an experience of God’s goodness: “For God … has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” Once this gift has been given, effort to see it more clearly is also given, and when increased clarity is achieved, the root of joy sinks ever deeper. But that gift is laid on a foundation of the first one; to want to pursue God further one must first have seen why he is indeed worth pursuing. The darkened character of our intellects will prevent us from seeing this until God opens our eyes to do so. When he does, we will forever want to see things in the aura of his light.

Craig Keener on Miracles

Dr. Craig Keener is unarguably one of the world’s top scholars on the topic of miracles, and he recently delivered a lecture series on the subject that is well worth hearing if you want to get a fraction of his argument from his massive Miracles: The Credibility of the New Testament Accounts. This will be of interest to cessationists, materialists, and those who are neither.

HT: Triablogue

The Ubiquity of Kitsch

In an old essay from City Journal, philosopher Roger Scruton meditates upon the nature and ubiquity of kitsch. He contends “In all spheres where human beings have attempted to ennoble themselves, to make examples and icons of the heroic and the sublime, we encounter the mass-produced caricature, the sugary pretense, the easy avenue to a dignity destroyed by the very ease of reaching it.” This also, helpfully, gives Scruton’s understanding of the essence of kitsch. He elaborates more fully a little later:

Kitsch is not just pretending; it is asking you to join in the game. In real kitsch, what is being faked cannot be faked. Hence the pretense must be mutual, complicitous, knowing. The opposite of kitsch is not sophistication but innocence. Kitsch art is pretending to express something, and you, in accepting it, are pretending to feel.

Scruton contends that a major part of the origin of kitsch in the modern world is the decline of religion, but he also notes that this was precisely the sphere in which we first find it, and that it has persisted there to this day:

This work of the imagination is not possible for everyone; and in an age of mass communication, people learn to dispense with it. And that is how kitsch arises—when people who are avoiding the cost of the higher life are nevertheless pressured by the surrounding culture into pretending that they possess it. Kitsch is an attempt to have the life of the spirit on the cheap.

Hence the earliest manifestations of kitsch are in religion: the plaster saints and doe-eyed madonnas that sprang up during the nineteenth century in every Italian church, the cult of Christmas and the baby Jesus that replaced the noble tragedy of Easter and the narrative of our hard-won redemption. Kitsch now has its pantheon of deities—deities of make-believe like Santa Claus—and its book of saints and martyrs, saints of sentiment like Linda McCartney and martyrs to self-advertisement like Princess Diana. …

Kitsch reflects our failure not merely to value the human spirit but to perform those sacrificial acts that create it. It is a vivid reminder that the human spirit cannot be taken for granted, that it does not exist in all social conditions, but is an achievement that must be constantly renewed through the demands that we make on others and on ourselves. Nor is kitsch a purely aesthetic disease. Every ceremony, every ritual, every public display of emotion can be kitsched—and inevitably will be kitsched, unless controlled by some severe critical discipline. (Think of the Disneyland versions of monarchical and state occasions that are rapidly replacing the old stately forms.) It is impossible to flee from kitsch by taking refuge in religion, when religion itself is kitsch. The “modernization” of the Roman Catholic Mass and the Anglican prayer book were really a “kitschification”: and attempts at liturgical art are now poxed all over with the same disease. The day-to-day services of the Christian churches are embarrassing reminders of the fact that religion is losing its sublime godwardness and turning instead toward the world of fake sentiment.

Is there anywhere we can turn to escape kitsch? Scruton is pessimistic:

Can we escape from kitsch? In real life, it surrounds us on every side. Pop music, cartoons, Christmas cards—these are familiar enough. But the escape routes are also kitsched. Those who flee from the consumer society into the sanctuary of New Age religion, say, find that the walls are decorated with the familiar sticky clichés and that the background music comes from Ketelbey via Vangelis and Ravi Shankar. The art museums are overflowing with abstract kitsch, and the concert halls have been colonized by a tonal minimalism that suffers from the same disease. Nor is the world of politics immune. The glimpses that we see of life in Baghdad show a return to the high kitsch of Nazi Germany, with portraits of the Leader in heroic postures and architectural extravanganzas that outdo the most camp of Mussolini’s stage sets. But look at our own political world and we encounter kitsch of another and more comical kind. The kitsch-fly has laid its eggs in every office of state, and gradually the organism is softening. What is Monica Lewinsky if not kitsch, object and subject of the most expensive fake emotion since Caligula? The epic of which she was a part is in the style of Walt Disney, and the object of her affections was not a president but a “president.”

He does offer a glimmer of hope, or at least a project to be undertaken, at the end of his essay, but I will leave the reader to pursue it at its source.

This year he lectured on the same subject, and added some further thoughts, including a useful reflection on the case of people of sincere faith who value kitsch. See here:

What Questions Are We Asking?

Richard Hooker on Music

Hooker’s Laws of Ecclesiastical Polity, 5.38.1 and 3 (with some extra paragraph spacing to make it more readable), on music:

Touching musical harmony whether by instrument or by voice, it being but of high and low in sounds a due proportionable disposition, such notwithstanding is the force thereof, and so pleasing effects it hath in that very part of man which is most divine, that some have been thereby induced to think that the soul itself by nature is or hath in it harmony. A thing which delighteth all ages and beseemeth all states; a thing as seasonable in grief as in joy; as decent being added unto actions of greatest weight and solemnity, as being used when men most sequester themselves from action.

For which cause there is nothing more contagious and pestilent than some kinds of harmony; than some nothing more strong and potent unto good. And that there is such a difference of one kind from another we need no proof but our own experience, inasmuch as we are at the hearing of some more inclined unto sorrow and heaviness; of some, more mollified and softened in mind; one kind apter to stay and settle us, another to move and stir our affections; there is that draweth to a marvellous grave and sober mediocrity, there is also that carrieth as it were into ecstasies, filling the mind with an heavenly joy and for the time in a manner severing it from the body.

So that although we lay altogether aside the consideration of ditty or matter, the very harmony of sounds being framed in due sort and carried from the ear to the spiritual faculties of our souls, is by a native puissance and efficacy greatly available to bring to a perfect temper whatsoever is there troubled, apt as well to quicken the spirits as to allay that which is too eager, sovereign against melancholy and despair, forcible to draw forth tears of devotion if the mind be such as can yield them, able both to move and to moderate all affections.

…In church music curiosity and ostentation of art, wanton or light or unsuitable harmony, such as only pleaseth the ear, and doth not naturally serve to the very kind and degree of those impressions, which the matter that goeth with it leaveth or is apt to leave in men’s minds, doth rather blemish and disgrace that we do than add either beauty or furtherance unto it. On the other side, these faults prevented, the force and efficacy of the thing itself, when it drowneth not utterly but fitly suiteth with matter altogether sounding to the praise of God, is in truth most admirable, and doth much edify if not the understanding because it teacheth not, yet surely the affection, because therein it worketh much. They must have hearts very dry and tough, from whom the melody of psalms doth not sometime draw that wherein a mind religiously affected delighteth.

Be it as Rabanus Maurus observeth, that at the first the Church in this exercise was more simple and plain than we are, that their singing was little more than only a melodious kind of pronunciation, that the custom which we now use was not instituted so much for their cause which are spiritual, as to the end that into grosser and heavier minds, whom bare words do not easily move, the sweetness of melody might make some entrance for good things. St. Basil himself acknowledging as much, did not think that from such inventions the least jot of estimation and credit thereby should be derogated: “For” (saith he) “whereas the Holy Spirit saw that mankind is unto virtue hardly drawn, and that righteousness is the less accounted of by reason of the proneness of our affections to that which delighteth; it pleased the wisdom of the same Spirit to borrow from melody that pleasure, which mingled with heavenly mysteries, causeth the smoothness and softness of that which toucheth the ear, to convey as it were by stealth the treasure of good things into man’s mind. To this purpose were those harmonious tunes of psalms devised for us, that they which are either in years but young, or touching perfection of virtue as yet not grown to ripeness, might when they think they sing, learn. O the wise conceit of that heavenly Teacher, which hath by his skill, found out a way, that doing those things wherein we delight, we may also learn that whereby we profit!”

The Preestablished Harmony of Pop

Theodor Adorno, a member of the Frankfurt school, analysed pop music from the perspective of Critical Theory in his 1941 essay “On Popular Music”. Among his many reflections on the subject (of varying worth), he considered the reason for the hold of popular music on the masses. Part of his answer was the following:

The frame of mind to which popular music originally appealed, on which it feeds, and which it perpetually reinforces, is simultaneously one of distraction and inattention. Listeners are distracted from the demands of reality by entertainment which does not demand attention either.

The notion of distraction can be properly understood only within its social setting and not in self-subsistent terms of individual psychology. Distraction is bound to the present mode of production, to the rationalized and mechanized process of labor to which, directly or indirectly, masses are subject. This mode of production, which engenders fears and anxiety about unemployment, loss of income, war, has its “non-productive” correlate in entertainment; that is, relaxation which does not involve the effort of concentration at all. People want to have fun. A fully concentrated and conscious experience of art is possible only to those whose lives do not put such a strain on them that in their spare time they want relief from both boredom and effort simultaneously. The whole sphere of cheap commercial entertainment reflects this dual desire. It induces relaxation because it is patterned and pre-digested. Its being patterned and pre-digested serves within the psychological household of the masses to spare them the effort of that participation (even in listening or observation) without which there can be no receptivity to art. On the other hand, the stimuli they provide permit an escape from the boredom of mechanized labor.

The promoters of commercialized entertainment exonerate themselves by referring to the fact that they are giving the masses what they want. This is an ideology appropriate to commercial purposes: the less the mass discriminates, the greater the possibility of selling cultural commodities indiscriminately. Yet this ideology of vested interest cannot be dismissed so easily. It is not possible completely to deny that mass consciousness can be molded by the operative agencies only because the masses “want this stuff.”

But why do they want this stuff? In our present society the masses themselves are kneaded by the same mode of production as the arti-craft material foisted upon them. The customers of musical entertainment are themselves objects or, indeed, products of the same mechanisms which determine the production of popular music. Their spare time serves only to reproduce their working capacity. It is a means instead of an end. The power of the process of production extends over the time intervals which on the surface appear to be “free”. They want standardized goods and pseudo-individualization, because their leisure is an escape from work and at the same time is molded after those psychological attitudes to which their workaday world exclusively habituates them. Popular music is for the masses a perpetual bus man’s holiday. Thus, there is justification for speaking of a preestablished harmony today between production and consumption of popular music. The people clamor for what they are going to get anyhow.

Dallas Willard on the Nature of Feelings

Dallas Willard wisely instructs his readers on the nature of feelings:

Much of the great power of feelings over life derives not just from the fact that they touch us, move us, but from the fact that they creep over into other areas of our life; they pervade, they change the overall tone of our life and our world. They spread like an unstable dye or a viral form or a yeast. They may take over all else in us, even that to which they have no relevance. Things and people around us then look different, take on a distinctive tone or meaning. And that can even determine the tendency and outcome of our life as a whole.

This explains why it is so hard to reason with some people. Their very mind has been taken over by one or more feelings and is made to defend and serve those feelings at all costs. It is a fearful condition from which some people never escape. We have noted how thoughts generate feelings. If we allow certain negative thoughts to obsess us, then their associate feelings can enslave and blind us—that is, take over our ability to think and perceive. …

Beyond the individual level, poisonous emotions and sensations often take over entire social groups, blinding them and impelling them on terrible courses of destruction. This is nearly always what has happened in cases where repression of ethnic groups or genocide occurs. Thus, to the onlooker the participants (the Nazis, and so on) seem to be deaf, blind, and insane – which, in a sense, they are. They, too, are imprisoned.

Feelings can be successfully “reasoned with,” can be corrected by reality, only in those (whether oneself or others) who have the habit and are given the grace of listening to reason when they are expressing violent feelings or are in the grip of them. A feeling of sufficient strength may blot out all else and will invariably do so in one who has not trained himself or herself, or been trained, to identify, to be critical of, and to have some distance from his or her own feelings. Combined with a sense of righteousness, strong feeling becomes impervious to fact and reason. …

Abandonment to feeling, allowing oneself to be “carried away” by feeling, is actually sought by many, and on a regular basis. That is a testimony to our epidemic deadness of soul. People want to feel, and to feel strongly, and in the very nature of life they need to do so

The opposite of peace is really not war, but deadness. The “dead soul” is one waiting to explode or fall apart, and one that will seek out trouble for reasons it cannot understand. In its desolate life away from God, there is no drama to provide constructive feeling tones that would keep life from being a burden. Such persons really have no hope. This is the key to those “lives of quiet desperation” Thoreau attributed to “most men.” Feeling will then be sought for its own sake, and satisfaction in feeling alone always in turn demands stronger feeling. It cannot limit itself. [Renovation of the Heart, 124-125]

Chronicles In The Abolition Of Man

A woman wants to give birth to a shark.

The prophet C.S. Lewis once wrote:

Objective Good, Economics, And Politics

There is at least one fundamental tension between the thinking of some Austrian economics and some libertarian political philosophy, and classical Christian social thinking. Consider this excerpt from von Mises’ magnum opus, Human Action:

Mises stands within a long tradition of thinkers assuming Hume’s separation of value and fact, a repudiation of the premodern tradition (in which Christianity finds itself) which said there was such a thing as an objective good and evil for human action, and that it could be known by everyone. In participating in the modern tradition, Mises assumed the modernists’ rejection of formal and final causes in the world, and so left humanity without any objective good purpose toward which it was intrinsically directed. What is left in the vacuum is bare will, and perhaps the passions, to which Hume said reason was always a slave. Certainly, there is no objective good that can be rationally discovered by all people of good will.

And, of course, Mises and likeminded Austrians (and libertarians) are not alone amongst the economic and political schools of today in holding this view of ethics and human nature. But they are all clearly in opposition to Christian doctrine at this point.

Reasonable Fasts

The season of Lent is upon us, and so Christians are talking once again about fasting. Among Protestants, this is always a touchy subject. Some among the sons of the Reformers strive to distinguish themselves from Papists by glorying in feasts; others, for various reasons, seek to regain some part of the church’s tradition surrounding fasts.

I’m not particularly interested in hashing out this debate here, though I have my opinions. However, I would like to share Scot McKnight’s argument, from his little book on fasting, about the logic of fasts in general. I read this years ago, but it has stuck with me ever since as eminently reasonable.

He defines fasting as follows:

Fasting is the natural, inevitable response of a person to a grievous sacred moment in life. [xx]

That is, he argues that fasting is a natural response to a particular kind of moment, a grievous, or serious, sacred moment. In other words, fasting is not done (at least in the Bible) for the purpose of achieving some response. It is not done, primarily at least, with prospective vision, but rather with retrospective [xx-xxi].

The Jews and the early Church, of course, also practiced stationary fasts, which are fasts that are practiced regularly, often two days a week (Jews on Mondays and Thursdays, Christians on Wednesdays and Fridays). McKnight admits he does not know exactly what the purpose for these fasts was, but he argues that, given the survey of fasting he had given by that point in the book, it was reasonable to assume that they, too, were retrospective acts. As he puts it:

Even if we cannot always discern why the earliest Christians fasted, we can be confident that some grievous sacred moment prompted the fasting. In light of the themes we’ve already discussed, it is reasonable to think that body discipline was a response to the presence of sin, to the reality of a broken world, and to the yearning for holiness and love. [73]

And how can it be otherwise? Until the Lord comes, there will always be evil and pain to cause us grief, both in others and in ourselves. There is thus always reason to fast, if we are sensitive enough in heart to perceive it.


To join mailing list for updates and reminders about Laughter Yoga happenings in Ashland click here.

laugh at the sky.”

~ Buddha
“It is never too late
to have a happy childhood.”

~Tom Robbins

“What is soap to the body, laughter is to the soul.”
~Yiddish Proverb

"Practice laughter daily: free up your inner muse."

~Author Unknown

“At the height of laughter the universe is flung into a kaleidoscope of possibilities.”
~Jean Houston

“Laughter is a holy thing. It is as sacred as music and silence and solemnity, maybe more sacred. Laughter is like a prayer, like a bridge over which creatures tiptoe to meet each other. Laughter is like mercy, it heals. When you can laugh at yourself you are free.”
~Ted Loda

Divine Laughter is the sound of grace, singing its celebration of joy, peace and acceptance: It is the song of love. This kind of laughter doesn’t always happen out loud. Sometimes it is the inner smile of our awareness and acceptance of what is. Sometimes it is a stillness inside in response to outer unrest. And sometimes it bubbles forth like a song of enthusiasm, gratitude and celebration of Being. We may laugh inside, in celebration of our infinite immortal Spirit, while we respond compassionately to the world's pain through whatever form of action we are inspired to take. Throughout that compassionate action and service, however, if we remember ourSelf, we laugh inside, allowing Grace to pour through us to enable and strengthen our actions with Love and Peace.

"God and I have become like two giant fat people living in a tiny boat.
We keep bumping into each other and laughing."

~ Hafiz

Laughter is incredibly healing. When we laugh, we are in the present moment, our mind is not engaged in past guilt or future fear. We simply Are. In laughter, the doorway that allows Grace’s ever givingness to be received is wide open. Resistance releases when we laugh. We can not laugh and hold on to fear, anger, resentment, resistance or any other thoughts that hold back Grace. Laughter says Yes! to Grace, Yes to Life!

“Time spent laughing is time spent with the Gods.”
~Japanese proverb

“Laughter is the shortest distance between two people.”
~Victor Borg

“Laughter on one’s lips is a sign that the person
has a pretty good grasp of life.”

~Hugh Sidey

~Agnes Repplier

“Laugh and your life will be lengthened,
for this is the great secret of long life.”

~Og Mandino

Laughter is the Best Medicine. Humans were designed to laugh. Laughter is nature's stressbuster. It lifts our spirits with a happy high that makes us feel good and improves our behavior towards others.

Just a few generations ago happy healthy humans spent 20 minutes a day or more in laughter. Now adult daily laughtime is down to 5 minutes or less in many countries. This is one of the worst aspects of 'modern life'.

Laugh yourself healthy. We all know that laughter makes us feel good. A regular 20 minute laughter session can have a profound impact on our health and wellbeing. Laughter is gentle exercise. It fill your lungs and body with oxygen, deep-clears your breathing passages and exercises your lungs. This is really important for people who don't get regular aerobic exercise.

Why Laughter Yoga? (Do you really need a reason?!) Eleven years ago Dr Madan Kataria, an Indian doctor and student of Yoga was writing a paper for a medical journal titled 'Laughter is the best medicine'.

Convinced of the medical benefits of laughter and Yogic breathing exercises, Doctor Kataria was searching for a way to bring these benefits to modern man. You can't prescribe 20 minutes of laughter a day, and for best effect a range of different types of laughter should be combined.

In a flash of inspiration Laughter Yoga was born. Thanks to Doctor Kataria, countless people all over the world today enjoy the benefits of a daily dose of laughter practicing Laughter Yoga at laughter clubs or at their workplace.

Anyone can laugh without reason. Laughter Yoga combines laughter exercises and yoga breathing to give you the health benefits of hearty laughter.

Laughter Yoga™ is a worldwide social movement (non religious, non sectarian, non political) that aims to promote world peace through laughter. It is based on the philosophy of “acting happiness” and is a physically-oriented technique, not a mental practice. In Laughter Yoga™, you don't need to be happy, have a sense of humor, or even have a reason in order to laugh. Laughter is a tremendously efficient way to express and release tension in a positive manner, and is proven to relieve stress, improve blood flow and digestion, and strengthen the immune system. There are currently over 5000 Laughter Clubs worldwide counting over 250,000 members, and growing.

Here are 10 good reasons to laugh for no reason

Laughter is a stress buster. It reduces the levels of stress hormones epinephrine and cortisol.

Laughter strengthens the immune system and helps maintain good health.

Laughter is anti-aging. It increases blood supply to the face, nourishing the skin and making it glow.

Laughter is an aerobic exercise equivalent to any other standard aerobic exercise.

Laughter helps control high blood pressure by reducing the release of stress-related hormones.

Laughter helps dump depression, anxiety and psychosomatic disorders.

Laughter Yoga™ makes us more creative and imaginative. It improves our sense of humor.

Laughter shrinks the hurts of everyday life to a smaller, if not inconsequential size. It interrupts the power struggle and defuses anger by releasing it.

Laughter helps individuals be more self-confident and self-expressive.


Meet the Oklahoma State University SSNAP Scholars!

Click on heading title to jump to the corresponding section on this page.

Undergraduate Scholars
Graduate Scholars

542 Amber Anderson (Cherokee) is a biochemistry and molecular biology student researching common infectious diseases in the Native American community. Amber plans to pursue an MPH in Public Health with a focus on epidemiology. Ultimately, she plans to obtain a PhD and run her own medical research lab to better understand diseases among Native Americans. Amber is actively involved with the Native American community at OSU and serves as a mentor to OSU freshmen.

The SSNAP workshop provided me the opportunity to collaborate with students and faculty members. The SACNAS conference provided me with new perspectives, great contacts and information on topics related to my area of interest.”

Lindsey Berger (Otoe-Missouri) is a physiology student interested in medicine and Alzheimer’s research. She hopes to obtain a MS degree in biomedical science. In her spare time, Lindsey enjoys swimming, reading and shopping.

Wilmon Brown (Chactaw) is a psychology student, studying behavioral neuroscience. His research is focused on the biological basis of learning. He aspires to obtain a PhD in Educational Psychology and contribute to the research in the Developmental Psychology field. Wilmon follows basketball and enjoys researching current astronomical events in his free time.

Attending SSNAP and SACNAS has encouraged me to continue pursuing my goals. It was refreshing to see professors and researchers from my cultural background.

545 Kayla Davis (Osage) is a microbiology student researching mitotic spindle positioning and sumoylation. Kayla aspires to be a Principal Investigator at a research institute. In her spare time, she enjoys ballet, jazz and tap dancing.

“SACNAS was an incredible opportunity for growing professionally as well as culturally.”

546 Kristen Enyart (Seneca-Cayuga) is a microbiology student. She is currently working on host specificity of horsehair worms in North American and African freshwater snails. Her career goal is to become a pharmacist. In her free time, Kristen enjoys spending time with friends, watching movies, reading and photography.

“SACNAS was a very good and positive experience!”

547 Alex Hardison (Cherokee) is a biological science student. His research interests include plant ecology, field ecology and ethno botany. Alex plans to pursue a PhD degree to conduct ecology work for the Cherokee Nation. He aspires to work in land restoration and give back to his community. Alex enjoys hiking, rock climbing, long boarding and various other outdoor activities.

“The SACNAS conference was beneficial in that I was able to present my research and gain experience in presenting at a national level, and to visit various schools and individuals about different opportunities available."

548 Gracie Jamison (Chickasaw) is a psychology studen currently researching evolutionary perspectives on mating and attraction. She has special interest in promoting education for HIV prevention in order to lower the risks of sexually transmitted diseases and teen pregnancies in the state of Oklahoma. Gracie’s career goal is to obtain a PhD in clinical psychology and work as a clinician with her native community. In her spare time, Gracie enjoys the company of friends, listens to music and reads books.

“I believe both programs were beneficial to me. Having the opportunity to go to Seattle, WA to present my research poster was a great experience”

586 Geoff Kibble (Cherokee) is a mechanical and aerospace engineering student, interested in space technology, artificial gravity systems and inflatable structures research. Geoff hopes to obtain a space research position and prepare for graduate school.

“I have learned a lot about applying to graduate school, how to present at conferences, and how to build a large professional network.”

585 Paul Martinez (Cherokee) is a cellular biology student interested in biomedical research. His goal is to apply to medical school after he obtains his BS degree. In his spare time, Paul enjoys watching movies and has special interest in ecology.

I was allowed to go to different conferences and network with my peers and professionals and to find more research opportunities.”

561 Amanda Mathias (Cherokee) is an animal science student. Her current research project looks at ethyl alcohol's effectiveness as a corneual nerve block when disbudding calves. Amanda plans to pursue a PhD and improve management practices of beef cattle to allow for efficient production. She hopes to work in industry or academia. In her spare time, Amanda enjoys watching NCIS, reading, cooking and playing softball.

“Having my presentation judged by professors unfamiliar with the cattle industry gave me a chance to answer questions I have never been asked before. Their point of view and questions made me think on my feet to explain my research in a way they would be able to understand, which I have never had to do before.”

583 Ashlyn Newcomb (Cherokee) is pursuing a BS in psychology. Her research interests include suicide, substance abuse and domestic violence. She plans to pursue a career with the Council of American Indian Families.

549 Leslie O’Connor (Comanche) is studying clinical psychology with a focus on child behavior. She hopes to obtain a PhD in clinical psychology. In her spare time, Leslie enjoys learning Spanish, reading and traveling.

551 Allison Potts (Cherokee) is pursuing a BS in animal science. She is researching the reproductive hormones in mammals and is currently doing research on WNT signaling pathway in bovine. Her career goal is to obtain a PhD to become a tenured professor and inspire undergraduate students to get involved in research. Allison enjoys rock climbing, quilting and horseback riding and is actively involved in purebred Corgi rescue.

“SSNAP and SACNAS were a wonderful experience. Both have helped improve  my writing and networking skills. Plus I made a lot of new friends!”

552 Keely Redhage (Cherokee) is pursuing a BS in Microbiology, studying microbial pathogenesis. Her research interests are cardiology and cystic fibrosis. She hopes to obtain her MD/PhD and become a surgeon. Keely is a member of Phi Mu Sorority and Alpha Epsilon Delta pre health honor society and enjoys archery.

“I absolutely loved SACNAS! The conference exposed me to many areas of research. The environment was positive and opened many doors for research opportunities.”

554 Jonathan Sofian (Osage) is a psychology student, researching suicide, depression and anxiety among Native Americans. Jonathan hopes to receive a PhD in clinical psychology and aspires to help serve the Native American community. Jonathan enjoys music, reading, sports and art.

“SSNAP and SACNAS provided me with very valuable information that I plan on using when I am applying for graduate school. I am very lucky to have been involved.”

555 Evan White (Absentee Shawnee) is a psychology student researching psychophysiology and its relation to psychopathology around emotion, anxiety and mood disorders. He aspires to become a researcher and educator in the psychology field. In his spare time, Evan enjoys music, woodworking, sports, outdoor activities and cultural ceremonies.

SACNAS and SSNAP gave me very valuable experience related to attending and presenting at a national conference.”

556 Grant Williams (Cherokee) is a physics student researching condensed molecular physics and is interested in renewable energy.  His ultimate goal is to obtain a PhD in physics and become a college professor. In his spare time, he enjoys backpacking and various other outdoor sports.

 The SSNAP and SACNAS program have helped me in learning how to apply to summer REU programs.  In addition the conference provided good contacts and of course new friends.  As a freshman who was fortunate to attend this event I look forward to continued involvement.”

557 Eric Butson (Cherokee) is a physical chemistry student. He uses computationalchemistry to understand reaction mechanisms and kinetics of various reactions. Eric is pursuing a PhD and plans to become a professor at a liberal arts college to encourage undergraduate students to go into STEM fields. In his spare time, Eric enjoys writing music, playing acoustic guitar and watching movies. He also has great interest in learning about the cosmos and universe.

“SSNAP and the SACNAS conference were both very beneficial. I learned a great deal about writing and how to secure funding. Additionally, I made a lot of good friends and talked to other chemists about their experiences.”

584 Erica Capps (Cherokee) is a zoology student. Her research interests include environmental conservation, Geographic Information System (GIS) and ecology. Erica’s current research focuses on the spread of aquatic invasive species across United States by using GIS to map population locations and attempt to establish broad spatial patterns to provide insight for possible conservation efforts. Her goal is to obtain a PhD and pursue a teaching career or continue doing research in conservation field. In her spare time, Erica is an expert at raising, training, riding, and competing Paint and Pinto horses. She also enjoys boating, 4-wheeling and raising Belgian Blue cattle.

558 Josh McLoud (Cherokee) is a botany student, currently researching meiotic cell cycle regulation and recombination. Josh is interested in developments in Alzheimers and autism research and the  psychology of addictive behaviors. He hopes to become a professor at a research institute and take an active role with organizations that promote diversity and scholarship.

Attending the SACNAS National Conference was a great opportunity to learn about resources to move forward in my career. Meeting peers who had been through similar academic hardships, I learned that Native Americans can be successful in academia and industry, which was reassuring. It was a great experience"

562 Cynthia Oronoa (Mississippi Band of Choctaw) is a student in the department of education. Her research focuses on the alignment of American Indian parent and children’s mathematical views and the impact that it has on student mathematical achievement. She aims to work with American Indian students and teachers to help increase mathematic achievement. In her spare time, Cynthia enjoys spending time with family, reading and participating in American Indian community events.

“Being a SSNAP Scholar and attending the SACNAS Conference allowed me to see the work of fellow American Indian and Chicano students, network with other American Indian colleagues and take on a mentor role with undergraduate students.”

563 Shelby Rice (Cherokee) is a microbiology student researching protein structure and function determination. Shelby is pursuing a PhD and aspires to conduct research in industry or a national laboratory. In her spare time, Shelby enjoys playing soccer, beading jewelry and singing.

SSNAP and the SACNAS conference have been very beneficial to me because I was given the opportunity to present my research to an audience with cultural backgrounds similar to mine. That experience broadened my social network, allowing for possible future mentorship and collaborative opportunities."

566 David Supeck (Cherokee) is a biomedical science student interested in immunology, infectious disease and mucosal immunity, gut microbiota research. His ultimate career goal is to be a clinical lab director and work for the NIH or CDC as a research scientist. In his spare time, he enjoys movies, outdoor activities, snowboarding and reading.

The connections I made at the SACNAS conference and the SSNAP meetings were beneficial.  The sessions at the conference were very informative and provided me with information that I can use throughout my degree program.”

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Bible Book List
Bible Gateway Lent Devotional - Monday, March 2, 2015

The Lord Will Provide

Today’s Prayer

Lord, do not rebuke me in your anger or discipline me in your wrath. Your arrows have pierced me, and your hand has come down on me. My guilt has overwhelmed me like a burden too heavy to bear. Do not forsake me; do not be far from me, my God. Come quickly to help me, my Lord and my Savior. — Psalm 38:1,2,4,21,22

Today’s Scripture Reading: Genesis 22:1-14

“Here I am,” he replied.

“Yes, my son?” Abraham replied.

“Here I am,” he replied.

Today’s Quote

"[Jesus] died not as a martyr but as the representative of a sinful race. Although God loved him infinitely, still, as the representatives of a sinful race, in his displeasure he poured down upon him the vials of his indignation. The death of Christ was intended to make an impression upon the universe, and all the circumstances attending it show what a wonderful effect it had. When he was nailed to the cross the sun refused to look on, and the heavens were clothed with sackcloth; the whole universe seemed shaking to its foundations. Heathen philosophers observed it, and said, Either nature is being dissolved, or the god of nature is dying . The dead could not sleep in their graves, the earth trembled, and the tombs opened, and those who had been dead issued forth, and walked into the city. The veil of the temple was rent in twain. God made a mighty impression upon the entire universe, when, in order that sinners might be pardoned, he thus made a fearful demonstration of his hatred against sin." — Charles Finney, 19th century revival preacher, in his sermon "Christ the Mediator"

Something to Think About

Was it "fair" or "just" for Jesus to die for our sins? How does Jesus' death and resurrection change your relationship to God's law?


Spring 2012 Courses

071. Bird Song, Human Song
Robert Greenlee T 1:00 - 2:25, TH 1:00 - 2:25
A study of avian and human melodies, including the mechanics, anatomy, neurobiology, and endocrinology of sound production and recognition in birds and humans; ecological and evolutionary contexts of song; and interspecific influences on songs. Songs and calls, identified aurally and through sonograms and basic music notation, are used to inspire new musical compositions that explore the musical relationships between humans and birds. Required field trips, research projects, and anatomy laboratories. Although no music or biology experience is required or presumed, students should have a strong interest in learning about birds and music. Weekly one-hour lab.
081. Physics of the Environment
102. Introduction to Oceanography
104. Environmental Geology and Hydrology
201. Perspectives in Environmental Science
203. Environment and Culture in North American History
Connie Chiang M 1:00 - 2:25, W 1:00 - 2:25
205. Earth, Oceans and Society
218. Environmental Economics and Policy
An exploration of environmental degradation and public policy responses in industrial economies. Market failures, property rights, and materialistic values are investigated as causes of pollution and deteriorating ecosystem functions. Guidelines for equitable and cost-effective environmental policy are explored, with an emphasis on the roles and limitations of cost-benefit analysis and techniques for estimating non-monetary values. Three core themes are the transition from “command and control” to incentive-based policies; the evolution from piecemeal regulation to comprehensive “green plans” (as in the Netherlands); and the connections among air pollution, energy systems, and global warming.
252. Global Justice
Megs Gendreau M 8:00 - 9:25, W 8:00 - 9:25
Investigates questions concerning the distribution of both goods and harms at the global scale, as well as issues in international human rights. Special attention will be given to environmental issues that have international import, including global climate change, waste disposal, and resource scarcity. Readings will be taken largely from contemporary sources, and students will be expected to investigate and discuss a number of case studies from the 20th and 21st Centuries.
263. International Environmental Policy
267. Coastal Oceanography
270. Landscapes and Global Change
305. Environmental Fate of Organic Chemicals
Dharanija Vasudevan M 11:30 - 12:55, W 11:30 - 12:55
More than 100,000 synthetic chemicals are currently in daily use. In order to determine the risk posed to humans and ecosystems, we need to understand and anticipate the extent and routes of chemical exposure. Addresses the fate of organic chemicals following their intentional or unintentional release into the environment. Why do these chemicals either persist or break down, and how are they distributed between surface water, ground water, soil, sediments, biota, and air? Analysis of chemical structure used to gain insight into molecular interactions that determine the various chemical transfer and transformation processes, while emphasizing the quantitative description of these processes.
375. Feeding the World: The Nature and Challenges of Our Food and Agricultural Systems
Philip Camill M 8:00 - 9:25, W 8:00 - 9:25
397. Advanced Winter Field Ecology
Nathaniel Wheelwright F 3:00 - 4:55
Exploration of advanced concepts in ecology and evolutionary biology, and the natural history of plants, animals, and ecosystems in winter in Maine. Structured around group research projects in the field. Each week, field trips focus on a different study site, set of questions, and taxon (e.g., host specificity in wood fungi, foraging behavior of aquatic insects under the ice, estimation of mammal population densities, winter flocking behavior in birds). Students learn to identify local winter flora and fauna, critically evaluate readings from the primary literature, analyze data from field research projects, and present their results each week in a research seminar. Required field trip to the Bowdoin Scientific Station on Kent Island.
398. The City Since 1960
Jill Pearlman M 10:00 - 11:25, W 10:00 - 11:25
Seminar. Explores the history of the North American city from the end of urban renewal to the age of climate change. Focused thematically, topics include the fall of the postwar city and the rise of urban complexity ; gentrification and its effects; changing ideals of historic preservation; monuments and sites of memory; urban disasters and their aftermaths; and the brief history of the sustainable city. Culminates in an original research paper, based on primary and secondary source materials.


Tuesday, February 24, 2015

Variance swaps on a foreign asset

There is very little information on variance swaps on a foreign asset. There can be two kinds of contracts:
  • one that pays the foreign variance in a domestic currency, this is a quanto contract as the exchange rate is implicitly fixed.
  • one that pays the foreign variance, multiplied by the fx rate at maturity. This is a flexo contract, and is just about buying a variance swap from a foreign bank. The price of such a contract today is very simple, just the standard variance swap price multiplied by the fx rate today (change of measure).
For quanto contracts, it's not so obvious a priori. If we consider a stochastic volatility model for the asset, the replication formula will not be applicable directly as the stochastic volatility will appear in the quanto drift correction. Furthermore, vanilla quanto option prices can not be computed simply as under Black-Scholes, a knowledge of the underlying model is necessary.

Interestingly, under the Schobel-Zhu model, it is simple to fit an analytic formula for the quanto variance swap. The standard variance swap price is:

The quanto variance swap can be priced with the same formula using a slightly different theta:

We can use it to assess the accuracy of a naive quanto option replication where we use the ATM quanto forward instead of the forward in the variance swap replication formula.

Interestingly, the  quanto forward approximation turns out to be very accurate and the correction is important. The price without correction is the price with zero correlation, and we see it can be +/-5% off in this case.

The local vol price seems a bit off, I am not sure exactly why. It could be due the discretization, the theoretical variance should be divided by (N-1) but here we divide by N where N is the number of observations. That would still lead to a skewed price but better centered around correlation 0.

It's also a bit surprising that local vol is worse than the simpler ATM quanto forward approximation: it seems that it's extracting the wrong information to do a more precise quanto correction, likely related to the shift of stochastic volatility under the domestic measure.

Friday, February 20, 2015

Jumps impact: Variance swap vs volatility swap

Beside the problem with the discreteness of the replication, variance swaps are sensitive to jumps. This is an often mentioned reason for the collapse of the single name variance swap market in 2008 as jumps are more likely on single name equities.

Those graphs are the result of Monte-Carlo simulations with various jump sizes using the Bates model, and using Local Volatility implied from the Bates vanilla prices. The local volatility price will be the same price as per static replication for the variance swap, and we can see it they converge when there is no jump.

The presence of jumps lead to a theoretically higher variance swap price, again, which we miss completely with the static replication. As jumps go higher, the difference is more pronounced.

Volatility swaps are a bit better behaved in this regard. Interestingly, local volatility overestimate the value in this case (which for variance swaps it underestimates the value). I also noticed that the relatively recent formula from Carr-Lee will underestimate jumps even more so than local volatility: it is more precise in the absence of jumps, very close to Heston, but less precise than local volatility when jumps increase in size.

I have added a small section around this in my paper on SSRN.

Thursday, February 19, 2015

Variance Swap Replication : Discrete or Continuous?

People regularly believe that Variance swaps need to be priced by discrete replication, because the market trades only a discrete set of options.

In reality, a discrete replication will misrepresent the tail, and can be quite arbitrary. It looks like the discrete replication as described in Derman Goldman Sachs paper is in everybody's mind, probably because it's easy to grasp. Strangely, it looks like most forget the section "Practical problems with replication" on p27 of his paper, where you can understand that discrete replication is not all that practical.

Reflecting on all of this, I noticed it was possible to create more accurate discrete replications easily, and that those can have vastly different hedging weights. It is a much better idea to just replicate the log payoff continuously with a decent model for interpolation and extrapolation and imply the hedge from the greeks.

I wrote a small paper around this here.


CFD Online Discussion Forums

CFD Online Discussion Forums (
-   -   DecomposePar and sets (

jhierroa January 2, 2007 22:30

I am interested in knowing whe
I am interested in knowing whether there is any way to work with a mesh divided into different sets (for instance rings around a central cylinder with different transport coefficients) where the final computation of the equations is, moreover, divided into different processors (with divisions along the z axis).

In other words:

Let it be a cylinder with rings around it with different transport properties and each cylinder is modelled by a different set (cellSet is used in the main code to set the transport properties in each ring). Is there any chance to compute the resulting system in parallel?

NOTE: a standard use of decomposePar works fine with everything (faces, nodes, points, patches, ...) except for the definition of the different sets which are not decomposed among the different processors.


Am I In Menopause?

Many women who have high FSH are told by their doctors that they are in menopause. This is a very alarming thing to hear, especially for a young woman trying to get pregnant. Many doctors indicate that a a patient is “in menopause” solely based on their FSH. In actuality, the entry to menopause is much more complex and subtle than any one test can indicate.

There was an excellent article on Medline that I have summarized below. You can also refer to this article for some interesting technical details. My summary is as follows:

  • The phases of fertility are referred to as “reproductive years”, “menopausal transition” and “menopause”.
  • The reproductive years are subdivided into “early”, “peak” and “late”. The early and peak reproductive years are characterized by high fertility and regular cycles. The late reproductive years are characterized by somewhat declining fertility and regular cycles. FSH levels can either be normal or elevated during the late reproductive years. Sometime in the late reproductive years – generally ten to fifteen years before menopause, the length of the menstrual cycle decreases (due to a shortened follicular phase).
  • Menopausal transition lasts on average around 4 to 5 years, but can be 0 years or up to 10 years in duration. Menopausal transition is also known as perimenopause, although perimenopause is technically different from menopausal transition in that perimenopause also includes the first year after menses have ceased. Menopausal transition has two phases known as “early” and “late”.  The early menopausal transition is characterized by variable cycle length (variation of more than 7 days from normal cycle length) and late menopausal transition is characterized by two or more skipped cycles and an interval of amenorrhea (of 60 days or longer). The average cycle length and the standard deviation of cycle length begin to increase and ovulation occurs less frequently.  Fertility begins to decline in the late reproductive years, declines further in the early menopausal transition and further still in the late menopausal transition.
  • Menopause is defined as the permanent cessation of menses. Menopause occurs at a mean age of around 51, with a standard deviation of around 2 years. Menopause is said to be “natural” if it occurs at or after the age of 40 and is said to be “premature” if it occurs prior to the age of 40. Premature menopause is also known as premature ovarian failure (POF). FSH is constantly elevated in menopause, although studies that have attempted to define a specific cutoff on FSH to define menopause are inconclusive.

So, it seems that this gradual progression from peak fertility to menopause can take several years.  High FSH might be an indicator that a person is somewhere on this progression but not necessarily in menopause. The key to understanding a woman’s chances for pregnancy is to try to determine where on the progression she is. The earlier in the progression, the higher the chance for pregnancy.


Beginning Again with Volunteer

Volunteer - debut album "The World Will Begin Again"

A Monster of a Track

sleeping dog

Brand new L.A. based Sleeping Dog just released their debut single, “Monster”, and it surely is a beast of a song. Constantly ebbing between subtle lows with intricate clean guitars with half-whispered vocals and full screams with blazing double bass, the song expertly navigates the territory between aggressive hard-rock/metal and more delicate emotional indy.

Six Piece Streaming with Vultures

Decidedly rocking, but decidedly not a rock band, the UK’s Vultures features three-part vocals, cello, violin, viola, bass and drums as a neo-goth sextet. The band’s multi-national background assembled in London and recorded their wonderfully dark, composed, and impassioned debut album “Three Mothers Part 1″, which is now available to stream and purchase.

Watching the Nighttime Come – Suz Slezak

Watching the Nighttime Come_Cover Art Suz Slezak

Where did you come from? A few seconds of guitar strumming lead straight into what Suz Slezak does best; break your heart with her voice. The only thing I knew about this album before my first listen was that it was created for parents and children. I admittedly didn’t know exactly what to expect. I personally don’t have any children, I’m an only child, and really have had very little experience with kids in general. If we’re being completely honest, children actually set me a bit on edge. To this album’s credit it makes me want to learn these tunes, and share them with the world.

Frantically Falling Upside Down

West coast based 1955 brings us a great video for the lead single, “Upside Down”, from their forthcoming The French Had A Name For It.  The video features a frantic race to a dreary poolside party attended only by a few whiskey-drinking, business-casual men which reflects the songs frantic but polished aesthetic. The climax features an underwater shot of a jump into the pool – a really clever literal translation of the song’s title.

Shaking from Mylets’ “Trembling Hands”

Mylets - Trembling Hands, Arizona

One-man dark indy/electronica artist, Mylets, released a captivating single for the forthcoming album, Arizona. Combining driving drum machines, a churning synth backing, powerful vocals, and bright, overdriven guitars, the track hints at influences in the 90s industrial greats like Nine Inch Nails while maintaining an inarguably progressive and modern feel. The full album will be released on April 21st, and a European tour kicks off shortly after that.

Lousy Trouts – That New Song

Lousy Trouts - The Dig Sessions

Lousy Trouts is a Milwaukee based band fronted by Jack Tell in an effort to explore his solo material through a massive collaboration. The band is comprised of a rotating cast from various Milwaukee groups such as, Ugly Brothers, Caley Conway and The Lucy Cukes, Calamity Janes and the Fratney street band, Meet Greeter, The Rusty Nickel Band, Grasping at Straws and Animals in Human Attire.

90 Seconds of Brutal Genius

Insanely talented, one-man metal band (with occasional help from friends), Mr. Walker, is good. Great even. Embarrassingly so. Their only album, A day in a storm, is rife with rhythmic riffs, brilliant leads, and engaging glitch and techno ideas. The minute and a half long instrumental which the album pivots around, “Walking in a shitstorm”, shows off all of these ideas in an amazingly glorious way. It’d take me longer to keep describing the song than it would to just listen to it, so get listening!


Allied Health Program Outcomes

Students are expected to learn the following within the Allied Health Services program:

1. Content Knowledge
  • Conduct assessments of client needs and resources at both the individual and community level, including analysis of social and political barriers that may impede health.
  • Plan, facilitate, and implement interventions; evaluate the outcome of service for those served.
  • Engage in practices and techniques that encompass group facilitation, psychosocial assessment, behavioral change and motivating practices, as well as working with diverse populations.
  • Utilize a variety of counseling skills and abilities to function effectively as chemical dependency counselors in a variety of settings.

2. Career Development
  • Adhere to professional ethical standards, including: confidentiality, sensitivity when working with diverse populations, and responsibility for professional growth.
  • Seek, find, evaluate, and use information, and employ information technology to engage in lifelong learning.
  • Develop and promote healthy practices, self-awareness, and self-care applying these items personally, with clients, colleagues, and other professionals.

3. Human Interaction
  • Develop and maintain effective working relationships with clients, colleagues, and supervisors.
  • Work together with individuals and groups to: assess needs, promote strengths, manage problems, set goals, develop or access resources, implement and assess action plans.
  • Examine the relationship between self, community, and environments; evaluate possible consequences and impacts of actions; make choices and contributions based on informed evaluation.
  • Explain the characteristics and treatment demands of chemically dependent / substance abusing clients.

4. Oral and Written Communication
  • Identify, evaluate, and analyze rhetorical strategies - in one's own writing and the writing of others - in order to communicate effectively.
  • Apply/utilize computer skills to maintain appropriate client and agency reports, records, and documents.
  • Employ and interpret clear, concise, and open communication - including verbal, nonverbal, and written communication - in a professional manner.

5. Critical and Ethical Thinking
  • Utilize mathematical, symbolic, logical, graphical, and statistical analysis for the interpretation and solution of problems in the natural world and human society.
  • Gather, assemble, and interpret data through various methods necessary to determine clients' strengths and barriers that interfere with their ability to overcome adversity or to achieve life goals.
  • Apply critical thinking strategies to make sound and reasoned decisions regarding common ethical dilemmas encountered in common practice settings.
  • Apply appropriate diagnostic criteria for substance related disorders, and criteria for other mental health disorders that commonly co-occur with chemical dependency / substance disorders.


Vocab from context vs Vocab in Context

We probably all remember being told “if you see a word you don’t know try to understand the meaning from context.” While this was pretty good strategy for early readers (let’s say through 6th grade), the older you get the less it works.  Trying to learn vocabulary from context as you get older is fraught with peril (is fraught a typo?). Let’s explore the difference between vocabulary in context and vocabulary from context. We also explore some strategies on how to use this to help us with the SSAT, ISEE, SAT, and GRE.

Learning vocabulary from context
Children’s books are often written with the intention of helping children acquire new words. To help children learn new words, these authors of children’s books will often use a word and then immediately define it in the context of the text. That text might look like this:

Dora the Explorer was precocious; she started exploring her tiny neighborhood earlier than any other child in her grade and did better in school than Boots, Benny, and Isa.

The use of precocious can easily be figured out by the phrase that follows telling you that Dora did something earlier than any of her peers. The provides a young reader a new word, an immediate definition, and an example of how the word is used. The provides a great starting point for gaining familiarity with a previously unknown word. When texts are written like this learning vocabulary from context is easy. The great challenge with this word will now only be retention. The reader will only remember this word if they see it used and use it (one study suggested that a word only becomes part of a person’s active vocabulary after being exposed to that word 15 times).

Vocabulary in context
However, when authors write books intended for adults they no longer feel the need to help develop the readers vocabulary and the writing style shifts to use appropriate vocabulary in context. Let’s revisit our sentence about Dora written for an older audience:

Dora the Explorer was known to be quite precocious; her explorations with no supervision other than that of her equally youthful companion, Boots, went beyond her tony neighborhood venturing to the beach, mountains, and even to the Forest of Prickers and Thorns.

Reading these two sentences you might conclude from the second one that precocious meant brave or mature but in fact the definition remains advanced for a young age. You might also convince yourself that the second sentence had a typo, the word tony, but in fact it doesn’t.

What to do?

Knowing this now you should feel equipped to help yourself and possibly others improve their word acquisition and vocabulary. Here are few suggestions to make that better:

1.  Always go to the dictionary and verify whether your guess from context was accurate. Anytime we (you, me, a student, etc) encounters a word we are even unsure about it makes sense to try to figure out the definition from context but we cannot accept that as the final word.

2. Don’t assume it’s wrong. If you see what you think is a typo in a respected text, like our image from the LA Times, don’t assume you know better than the editors (though typos do happen). Make sure you check it in the dictionary and verify whether it’s just a word you don’t know yet.

3. Remember you’re human. We are all human and make mistakes, even our noted presidential wordsmith, Barak Obama, has been taken to task for misusing words (Check out this post on VisualThesaurus.com about Obama’s use of nonplussed)

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