For starters, video gaming appears to have a positive effect on a player in terms of hand-eye coordination. Medical News Today on September 27th, 2010 reported on the results of a study performed atYorkUniversityinTorontowhich used fMRIs to study the brain activity of gamers when it came to progressively more difficult visuomotor tasks. The lead author concluded significant video gaming experience could actually restructure the brain such that gamers would be more proficient at video games but also at other complex activities involving hand-eye coordination. Such an effect could have a number of important implications – for example, it could be beneficial in the treatment of patients with neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s, where video gaming or something like it could prompt the brain to work around degenerate areas to combat the deleterious effects of the illness. Gaming could also, the author notes, be useful in producing more proficient surgeons, especially in the field of laparoscopic surgery, where the operation is magnified and displayed on a computer screen and the physician controls delicate movements by reference to it. Indeed, a study cited by MSNBC on April 7th, 2004 seems to bear out this conclusion – according to the researchers, surgeon-gamers made around 37 percent fewer mistakes when performing laparoscopic surgery and finished their tasks 27 percent faster.

Perhaps, however, that is to be expected. After all, many video games are built around the basic concept of “reacting quickly to visual stimulus.” What is more surprising is the possibility that they may in fact be improving other cognitive abilities of their consumers. As Steven Johnson notes in his July 2005 article for Discover Magazine, “Your Brain on Video Games”, these virtual toys inculcate and encourage “pattern recognition, system thinking, [and] even patience”. Games exercise these and other faculties, he argues, by exposing the gamer to new and increasingly difficult or subtle challenges as the game progresses, requiring the acquisition and exercise of new skill sets. Given the range of games available, from action shooter to urban management to motion puzzle, any number of different faculties can be developed. “Successful gamers,” says Johnson, “must focus, have patience, develop a willingness to delay gratification, and prioritize scarce resources. In other words, they think.”

Of course, for any of these skills to be of benefit outside the virtual realm they must find application in “real life.” But perhaps video gaming now and then isn’t so bad after all. Who knows, perhaps someday medical school applications may want to know how many hours a week a young prospect has spent sharpening his or her skills on the couch, controller in hand.

How did you conceive of the idea for this store? What makes you think there will be a demand?

While we’ve had a notion of this for a long time, the idea’s genesis was a beer and wine refill store, where customers could re-fill bottles and growlers. Our refuse, reduce, reuse, then recycle philosophy was a part of in.gredients from the beginning. Many consumers are waking up to the facts about unnecessary packaging waste and the importance of sustainable consumption, and we’re looking forward to making sustainable shopping easy for customers.

What kind of response has this idea received so far? Have you encountered any skepticism?

Consumer response has been out of this world. We’ve been very affirmed by how much positive feedback we’ve received from our community and consumer base. There is of course some skepticism about our package-free model because it’s not a model that’s commonly used in theUS, but that’s just an opportunity for us to educate our customers.

Is there anything particular about Austin’s culture that has made it possible to open up such a business here?

There are many Austinites who already care about reducing waste, good food and wellness, and supporting local businesses and agriculture. It’s a great place to start in.gredients.

Do you envision a broader societal shift toward packaging-free shopping? If so, how would values and practices have to change to make such a shift feasible?

Yes. It’s not a question of if, but when. We certainly hope so. Some progressiveUScompanies have already realized the environmental and financial benefits of reducing their packaging, and as costs associated with resource consumption increase, we’re only going to see more of that happening. The shift may be difficult for some consumers since we’ve all grown up in a single-use society: use, then dispose. But what we need to realize is when we dispose of something, it doesn’t disappear – it’s actually just taken down the street, and returns to us in the form of pollution. In order for things to get better, we’ve got to begin to embrace a refuse, reduce, reuse, then recycle mentality where we eliminate unnecessary waste. We want to introduce the concept to shoppers early, and make it easy to learn together – the store, vendors, and customers.

Are there other types of business that could use this model (e.g. hardware stores, art supply stores, etc.)?

Anywhere, really. The opportunities are endless! Bulk is very prevalent in business-to-business transactions; to us, the challenge is dispensing at the retail level.

What other functions do you want your store space to have (e.g. communal, educational, cultural)?

We want in.gredients to be a community space in addition to a grocery store, where people can come together to meet, stay, and learn. In the bigger picture, we want our business model to prove to the grocery industry that a lot of the packaging in grocery aisles really is unnecessary…and wasteful.

What challenges (if any) do you expect to face (or have you faced) in getting this idea off the ground?

We’ve had some challenges with our building permits that have delayed our opening. Otherwise, we haven’t encountered any significant challenges.

Do you want in.gredients to serve as an alternative to larger stores, or as more of a supplement?

We want our customers to be able to get all the basics at in.gredients – so our selection covers every section of the store. However, since we’re a microgrocer and because we want to make shopping easier for customers, we won’t have for example 50 types of cereal, which is common in larger stores. For any given item, we’ll likely have 1-2 options, which conserves space (and therefore energy consumption) while making choices easier for customers.

When do you plan on opening? How can people help to expedite this process?

Soon! Once we get our final building permits, construction to renovate our storefront will begin. You can track our progress at http://in.gredients.com/road-to-opening/.

Those were my fears as I anticipated the many hours I would spend meditating in Japan.  So you might expect my surprise during my first day meditating, when I realized boredom would be the least of my troubles. First was the surprisingly difficult task of actually meditating while sitting and staring at the wall. It’s easy enough to daydream, which is what I would usually end up doing for 30 of the 45 minutes, despite my orders to myself to just be, to just experience sitting without volitional thought or action.

This was the first surprise, although I’m sure it comes as no surprise to anyone who has tried to meditate for longer than five minutes. What was more surprising was what, after thirty minutes of “meditation,” forced my thoughts away from my increasingly colorful daydreams. It was pain: an incredible, shooting pain that shot through my legs as they regained feeling and forced me to be aware of my body again.

At least I knew I wasn’t alone. After each session I would turn around on my cushion towards the center of the room and see my fellow practitioners rubbing their feet, stumbling as they attempted to get up and wincing as they took careful steps out of the zendo (meditation hall).  Two especially devoted practitioners who did two or three sessions of meditation each day found their pain extending beyond the cushion; just walking down the hall, we would sometimes see them catching a wall for support as one of their legs unexpectedly went numb.

I would later be told by the roshi (head monk or zen master) of the Soto Zen temple Hokyoji that this pain was the “Buddha’s love.” The pain that comes from prolonged sitting forces one to be a passive observer of the world for at least that moment, when one’s mind is entirely filled with that sensation. And I did, slowly, come to appreciate it, especially one day when, drawn out of my daydreams by a shooting pain in my right knee, I noticed the noise of the air conditioning. The next day, I noticed the sound of the cars moving outside our temple. One day, when I was completely absorbed in these sensations, I was even able to hear the faint song of birds between the passing cars.

Those moments are the most rewarding aspect of meditation, at least as far as I’ve practiced. To hear the sound of the birds and trucks outside and feel the almost imperceptible breeze of the air conditioner, and to be totally satisfied with those sensations, without thinking about what you’re going to have for breakfast that morning, or what people think of you, or what exactly you’re going to do with your life, is to find total, unconditional contentment in that moment.

And that sort of satisfaction is worth the pain.

Everyone has heard the anecdotes – “The waiting list for the maternity ward in Canada is over nine months” – but not many have taken a serious look. The knowledge of other ways of doing things further faded from the public consciousness after the passage of what has come to be called “Obamacare” – now the pundits and people had something concrete to worry about.  But other healthcare systems persist like distant planets turning through their orbits, concerned with their own alien affairs. What makes these strange healthcare plans tick?  What might we as Americans learn from them?

An examination of the health care policies of other industrialized nations reveals two major classifications: social insurance and single-payer. (None have anything analogous to our own.)  The differences between the first two are pretty simple.  Under the social insurance model, recipients of benefits pay into insurance plans not unlike those to which we are accustomed to in the United States, only much more regulated by the government of the nation in question.  These plans cover the bulk of medical costs; the remainder are paid by the recipient as something analogous to our co-payments.  Single-payer healthcare systems are more like unto our Medicare – the government directly pays for medical costs, and indeed often directly operates at least some medical facilities. These are, of course, but broad descriptive strokes.  To further flesh out each type, I’ll provide a couple examples of each.

Social Insurance

1.) France

The French, by all accounts, know a thing or two about how to run their medical affairs.  The WHO – the World Health Organization, not the band – rated France as having the best healthcare system out of 191 countries evaluated in 2000.  Healthcare is funded by social insurance into which wage earners are required to pay – different funds exist for different types of employment status – i.e. agricultural, industrial or commercial employees, etc.  These funds are legally considered and constructed as private enterprises, but are overseen by the Social Security Directorate of the Ministry of Social Security, with whom they negotiate to fix rates and other aspects of coverage.

These insurance funds cover the majority of the cost of medical consultations, procedures, and medications, usually from 75-85% of the total.  What’s left is paid by the consumer and is often defrayed by buying supplementary insurance on a voluntary basis.  The entire cost, however, is initially borne by the recipient up front and out of pocket – the coverage comes later as a reimbursement.  As premiums are pegged to income rather than age or preexisting conditions, they are essentially taxes rather than what we in the US would think of as the typical insurance fees.

2.) Japan

The Japanese version of social insurance is more like the President’s public option proposal writ large than France’s altruistic insurance companies setup. The government manages insurance plans, again split along occupational lines. In theory participation is mandatory, but the laws are not rigorously enforced, leading to some gaps in coverage due to affordability.  Also like France, the premiums paid are tied to income.

When it comes to care, recipients cover 30% of the cost of services received, with insurance covering the rest.  There is a cap, however, on the total amount that individuals are liable to pay to minimize financial risk.  The medical industry itself is highly privatized, even more so than in the United States, with over 80% of hospitals being privately owned.

Single-Payer

1.)  The United Kingdom

Healthcare in the United Kingdom comes in two flavors – publicly-funded single-payer and private.  Public healthcare is managed by the National Health Service, or rather one of the various national health services to be found on the isles, depending on which constituent nation of the United Kingdom one happens to be residing in.  Each country – England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland – has its own National Health Service, each with its own distinct policies and practices.  For example, as of 2011, all of the services but the English covered prescription costs.  The overall goal, however, is the widespread implementation of the maxim “free at the point of use” – that is, the recipient of health care benefits pays no out of pocket when receiving services, except in a very few cases. The services are funded like other public resources, such as police and roads, via taxation.

There still exists even in this oldest single-payer society a thriving private medical sector.  The national health services by no means have monopolies on hospitals – many for-profit institutions function alongside their public counterparts.  At times the two seemingly opposing systems supplement each other – private hospitals often don’t have intensive care facilities, depending on NHS hospitals when things go really wrong, and the NHS has been known to work with private hospitals when they need extra space. One common use of the private sector is for specialist referrals.  Dental work is also often done through the private sector, though this is covered by the NHS and should properly be viewed as a sort of subcontracting.  Private insurance exists for covering private-sector treatment.

2.) Canada

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the Canadian way of doing things looks very similar to the British. Their single-payer system, called Medicare, is administered on a provincial level – roughly analogous to the constituent national level administration of the various NHSs – and supported by provincial-level taxes, with some federal supplements.  Doctors typically are in private practice, even when working at hospitals, billing Medicare for their services.  Hospitals themselves tend to be non-profit institutions.

Canada further differs from the British model in not having a well-developed private medical infrastructure existing parallel to the public.  There are comparatively fewer private clinics, even though they are not strictly ruled out by the federal legislation governing health care.  It is left up to individual provinces whether or not their operation is permitted.

Having reviewed the basics of these two different breeds of public health provision, we come to the  big question: who do we emulate?  Given that the United States, in the form of  Obamacare, seems to be following  the overall structures of the social insurance model, it would perhaps be our best bet to study the French and Japanese systems to try and optimize our own.

We could certainly do worse than learn from their example.  As previously mentioned, the WHO considered France to possess the world’s best healthcare only a decade ago.  The Japanese have the world’s highest life expectancy – beating us out by four and a half years or so –  and spend less annually on health care per capita than we do.  The British and Canadians both have good points to their systems as well – the Canadians outlive the French while only spending a little more per capita, the British outlive us by a year while spending only a little more than do the Japanese per person – but our projected reforms simply don’t fall along those lines right now.  Our best bet under the current reform plan would be to work to reign in insurance companies – a process already underway – and perhaps to reintroduce the possibility of a public option.  After all, there’s no reason to reinvent the wheel.

1.  Warm Milk

Let’s start with one everybody briefly acquainted with Western civilization will have at least a passing familiarity with. A study conducted by MIT in 2003 seems to indicate that any drowsiness caused by slamming warm milk before bed may be entirely due to a placebo effect – while milk may contain tryptophan, an amino acid often linked with drowsiness, it is also protein rich.  The study shows that protein rich foods such as milk make it more difficult for amino acids such as tryptophan to cross the blood-brain barrier and thus have any sort of sedative effect.  So, milk’s effects may be more due to suggestion than science.

2.  Sex

In addition to being tiring due to simply physical exertion, achieving sexual gratification prior to sleep – either solo or with a partner – leads to the release of a number of hormones. For example, after orgasm the body is flooded with prolactin, which while primarily associated with running and getting lactation up may also be responsible for the so-called “refractory period” – the interval of decreased arousal and increased relaxation directly following an orgasm.  This relaxation, coupled with the exercises which led to it, could very conceivably segue into a refreshing slumber.

3.  Alcohol

While over consumption of alcohol can and will certainly put one to sleep, I am more interested here in the use of the nightcap – one or two quick nips before bedtime which hopefully promote sleep without threatening to detonate the patient’s head the next morning.  There is a certain logic to the nightcap; alcohol, after all, is a depressant.  As such, it can help one slip under. Marc Galanter, however, helpfully points out in his 1998 book The Consequences of Alcoholism that using booze as a sleep aid might not be the most effective choice – as the alcohol level in the blood dissipates, the sleeper may become more alert and wake up earlier than desired.  If this pitfall can be avoided, the sleeper may experience extended REM sleep in which they might experience vivid nightmares, rather than the peaceful dreams they were after.

4.  Counting Sheep

Another classic handed down from generation to generation.  I personally have had little luck with this method, despite its widespread fame and much-vaunted reputation.  A study conducted by a couple scientists from Oxford University reported by the BBC in 2002 might shed light on why: the apparent strength of counting sheep is in fact its great weakness.  The entire practice seems to revolve around boring oneself to sleep.  But, the scientists claim, imagining something more interesting takes more brainpower and consequently stamps one’s ticket to thelandofNodmuch faster.  In their study, subjects who imagined a waterfall – much more dynamic and engaging than an endless line of sheep – fell asleep an average of 20 minutes faster than their counterparts playing the diligent shepherds.  This latter group, in fact, often lay awake longer than average, despite their boring ritual.

5.  Diphenhydramine

More so than any other entry on this list – especially number two – this is what my mother “recommended” to me as a sleep aid when I was growing up.  Perhaps more familiar to most people as an antihistamine, for example as an ingredient in Benadryl™, diphenhydramine also functions as a passable depressant.  In fact, it is even now being sold as an over-the-counter sleep aid without any reference to its other medicinal properties. And I must say it works quite effectively, though it can produce strange dreams. I also highly recommend setting two alarms.

6.  Melatonin

A natural (hormone-based) way to hit the hay, melatonin is available on the market in the form of supplements and anti-energy drinks. The idea behind this sleep aid is simple– melatonin is how the body regulates our circadian rhythms, that is, our day and night cycles. Melatonin is emitted in the dark and clearly functions to help us get to sleep. For this reason, it is often medically used to tread conditions such as seasonal affective disorder and jet lag. It does appear to be effective at inducing sleep, but can make you a bit slow to start the next morning, and has been known to cause vivid dreams and dips in body temperature.