3-7-2020, Sprout Nola, Community Service

3-7-2020, Sprout Nola, Community Service

Hours: 1.33

Cumulative: 26.28

Word Count: 351+

The Garden of Plenty: Community Service - Sprout NOLA

I managed to kill two birds with one stone.  I heard about the garden since volunteering for the kids’ cooking class at the Goldring Center for Culinary Service.  The kids received a tour of the garden while I was preparing the kitchen.  

Sprout Nola offers community service opportunities and free, fresh produce.  First, G instructed the volunteers to plant baby cucumbers.  They had become saplings and were ready to test their wings into bigger space.  G. demonstrated how to wiggle the hardened dirt to help the roots relax and expand.  They were planted out in spaces with half foot in between.  Then, I was assigned to prune the oregano.  They oregano grew on a lower bed and they had sprouted like weeds.  I pulled the woody stems.  The young stalks were easier to pull.  Then I trimmed the stalks.  Then, H and I unloaded the compost using shovels.  G. instructed us to go slow since spilling the compost would lead to weeds growing outside of the raised garden bed. Inhaling the oregano reminded me of a big bowl of pho.  Then, I collected some soil samples for the environmental pharmacology class.  For my remuneration, I received free vegetables like cilantro, the essential taste of high note refreshment for tacos.  I received free dill and learned how to pull carrots.  I planted some young cucumber plants.  While collecting the vegetables, G. gave free cooking tips on the uses of rosemary, dill, and chives.  Louisiana is fortunate state to not be in a state of drought; growing one’s garden is one way of addressing food deserts.  In states where water is expensive, community gardens are not viable solutions.

Abundant Oregano - So Plentiful & Free - These will get thrown to the compost if no one claims them

  

Five Pounds of Free Produce To-Go  

Carrots, Dill, Chives, Oregano, Cilantro, Parsley

Soil Sample for Lead Testing

While working on the oregano bed, the smoke from nearby smokers was present. Cigarettes are popular and affordable in New Orleans. Physiological reactions such as burning on the eyes and the back of throat and the pounding headache resulted. Breathing was difficult; the partial pressure of internal carbon dioxide must have increased.   The high exposure to carcinogens and mutagens is unfortunate; being a student in New Orleans carries a high risk of developing type II diabetes because of constant exposure to secondhand tobacco, since the science behind glucose intolerance from tobacco exposure is substantial. The carcinogens are potent enough to disable the receptors of the GLUT4 transporters in muscle and adipose tissue. Facilitated diffusion of glucose is unable to occur and aerobic production of ATP becomes more limited.  When ATP production is limited, the proper balance of electrochemical gradient is unable to be maintained.  Unlike other transporters, the sodium-calcium exchange is expensive and costly to operate in terms of ATP.   When the pump stops,  depolarization occurs, leading to release of glutamate.  The resulting inflammation can lead to stroke.   Furthermore, just walking from mandatory  community service to home involves the risk of developing incurable autoimmune diseases that will not be cured in this century, due to lack of NIH funding .  The route includes the VA Hospital, another site of high tobacco usage.   Performing mandatory community service to complete one's education should not risk one’s health but it does when legislation is far behind in protection of commons. Clinicians and educators need to build effective partnerships with legislators for translations of current knowledge.  Clearly, the tobacco industry has been able to convince the municipal and state stakeholders that cigarettes are not that bad.   In other states, smoking is illegal in public parks and public housing. A lot of people think being exposed to secondhand smoke outdoors is not so bad because it’s outdoors; unfortunately, this is not the position of the U.S. Surgeon General; there is no such thing as a safe exposure level: No one should breathe in tobacco, not even a little. Anyone who has passed middle-school science should know that the target of secondhand smoke is NOT the smoker's airspace; the favorable target of the lit cyanide is the non-smoker's airspace due to gas diffusion. The combustion of a cigarette is equivalent to that of an open-air gas chamber, because the same chemical used for Nazi gas chambers are used in cigarettes.  There is a reason why cigarettes lead to DNA damage that leads to cancer.

No living creature should breathe in radioactive elements, not even a little. The cyanide will inhibit your cytochrome c oxidase.

Pro Tip: Bring garden gloves and scissors.  Wear a hat.  Bring reusable bags to bring home fresh produce.  

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Because of the pandemic, community service sites are shutting down. 

03 Author Biologist Dr. Sapolsky - GPHR-7060

The author of the text used in the course GPHR-7060: stress guru and biologist Dr. Sapolsky's explanation of displacement aggression was insightful.  It helped to explain why intimidation, passive-aggression, and sarcasm are present in settings where codes of conduct have been established.  The aggressor is under stress.  The real cause of the stress is not present.  But you are.  So, why not take it out on you, especially if you are an individual with limited or any power.  However, what was missing was the explanation of the role of the bystander.  Every day, we all have the power to intervene in conflicts, but ignore it.  Why and how the witness refuses to acknowledge the duress and  pain the target is under was not explained.  

What was refreshing from observation from volunteering at Anna’s Place was the observation of consistency in the attitudes matching behaviors and vice versa. Hypocrisy is adult behavior.  It helps to explain why and how  adults can preach etiquette and professionalism and yet practice the silent treatment and uses of intimidation to air their frustration at  targets with limited power.  

Theory of Mind was used as dependent variable in an article presented for Neuropharmacology to evaluate the efficacy of oxytocin in reducing the negative symptoms of schizophrenia.  The results portended success and further verification.  

A healthy individual should be able to infer what another is feeling.  He should be able to infer that yelling at another will inflict harm. Social aggression does not follow the holistic definition of health used by the World Health Organization that evaluates psychosocial factors.  Perhaps oxytocin sprays can be used as an over-the-counter medication available for adults lacking in ToM and apathetic bystanders who cannot foresee that:

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the Coronavirus: One class had an impromptu discussion. Because the class size is fairly large, not everyone got to contribute in a non-judgmental environment.  “What have you heard about the Coronavirus?” The media reported on the trend of tactics used during the Jim Crow era with signs reading “No Chinese.”   Handwashing was recommended.  Given the culture of prejudice in the “Deep South,” one couldn't help but expect a rounding up of Americans who look Asian to reenact what Japanese Americans went through after Pearl Harbor.  In the South, it is assumed that individuals who look Asian must be Chinese, and never American.  

Most Americans have poor understanding of the social constructs of race.  There is only one race: the human race.  The skin color may vary but we are all the same race.  Historically, mass hysteria has followed with mass human rights abuses.  

Thankfully, students who live close enough to campus  don’t have to endure heightened social aggression and racism that Asian Americans must endure. Asian Americans are Americans.  In times of hysteria, xenophobia is allowed full expression. In Europe, the coronavirus virus and its hysteria instigated xenophobic violence.

 Surely, it can’t happen here at Tulane, right?  Remember the Patriot Act and how it established Guantanamo to round up Americans without due process?  How quickly we forget.

https://www.standagainsthatred.org/stories
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The local news reported on the coerced quarantine of a Tulane student.   The coerced quarantine occurred before the lab results of the Covid virus showing negative results.  It was based on a  subjective review.  Coercion is not foreign to the university.  The university spokesperson to the press stated that the student was "free" to leave after instructing the student that she has to remain in her dorm room. This is not the first time the university administrators defended themselves by stating that students are "free" and that they have a "choice" after using coercion techniques such as impeding students' access to their classes and university communication.     The university  uses the power  to impede on students' access to education based on subjective information.  The civil liberties of students are not considered inviolable at the university, which deviates from conforming to the "The Supreme Law of the Land." Conformity is supposed to be valued.