Lies, Lies, Lies!!

“Art is the lie that enables us to realize the truth.” Pablo Picasso

Picasso painting showing the horror of the Spanish Civil War to pre WW II Europe

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LIES

The best reason not to lie, for me, is that it makes things so much easier not to have to remember what I told to whom. First let’s get some things straight – there are all types of ‘untruths’  - April 1- " There is a big black hairy spider in your hair! ,  Dec… “ Yes Santa has a big toy factory at the North Pole and he will bring toys to all the good boys and girls.  “ Darren stole my pencil – “ No, I didn't”. 

We all know who this is - another fib - uh oh!

“I was at home watching TV by myself at that time I couldn't have been anywhere near the crime scene”.  “The trout I caught was ‘this big’ – but at the last minute it got away”.  “ I will bring a chicken to every pot if I am elected as your mayor”.  “I can’t go out with you Friday night because I have to visit my sick grandmother…”

 I have known people in my life that could not control their lies – and they told stories with consistency and a good memory of whom they told what.  I had an uncle who told about being the only person (as a young child) aboard their ship carrying emigrants from Europe to spot an iceberg and alert the ship crew.  Some ‘stories’ become family mythology – “ a pack of wolves followed the horse drawn sleigh as it went through the woods – but there was straw in the bottom of the sleigh to protect  feet from the cold." – my ancestor pulled out wads of straw and lit them on fire and threw them back at the wolves." 

Some people lie are about accomplishments – books they have ‘written, degrees they have ‘earned’, adventures they have ‘had', conquests they have 'made'.  I knew a man who was in the Pacific during World War II and it is unknowable how many of his stories were truly about himself, borrowed from others, or the products of invention.  They were amazing and entertaining.  And then there are stories that are mostly true - but maybe embellished just a little.

So why do people lie? I suppose that some people perceive that the truth just isn’t good enough.  They may be disappointed that they didn’t have grand experiences in their lives – and a little creative story telling gives them satisfaction – maybe even a thrill of having gotten away with it.  For some its about getting status or recognition.

Of course some lie for personal advantage, political or financial gains, or to avoid discovery for a real wrongdoing.  Once we get to this level of lies, they take on the aura of a crime and are often punishable either by law or by social or personal rejection. I have known people for whom  telling a good story as the truth is an art form to be recognized as a special gift.

I knew a man who made the most amazing claims about himself but finally tripped up and told a story about himself for which I was aware of the real facts.  Soon after, more  of his stories unravelled for me and my estimation of the man tumbled to disgust from that time forward… He still told his stories and he still found believers – but it made me sad…

The worst kind of liars are those who use their lies to cause others pain or "burst their bubble"… gossips who pass on half truths fall into this category – Such cruelty happens when a busybody finds pleasure in being the first to tell a hot story.    …The lying comes in when  they fabricate a bit to make the story juicer still.  

And you and I know that gossip eventually will come to the person talked about - causing that  special kind of pain because there is nothing much you can do about it.  Probably the lowest of the low are those that make up tales to besmirch the memory of loved one who have died.  When the  truth is unknowable and stories are still told – there is no recourse  - I supposes this gives a  feeling of “special power” to the liar. Maybe for some its a final getting even with the one who has died.

There is a superstition that its OK to tell a lie if you cross your fingers behind your back 

Are there justifiable lies?  If telling someone the truth would be very painful – is that a time to soften reality?  If you are hiding Jews and the Gestapo comes looking for them – is it justifiable to say “ Oh I haven’t seen any of them for days!”  Are politicians or news sources justified to feed us platitudes and untruths to meet their own agenda, to keep the moral of the public  high, or to maintain popularity?  

And then there are the lies we tell ourselves - " I'll only have one glass of wine and then I'll stop", " I look pretty good at ___ pounds.", "I'm really a 'cool guy'!"

"Do you promise to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth - so help you God?"

Beginnings and Ends

(All cactus blossom photos were shot in our back yard)

   

1.  For us in the education game, we are approaching the end of the academic year.  Time to celebrate what has been accomplished, do what is yet to done, write reports, give congratulations, graduation, and say farewell. It is touchingly wonderful to see how a random bunch of prospective teachers are transformed in a year’s time from uncertain individuals into a tight group of well trained creative  teachers.  

Education Building ( where we hold our seminars each week ) - Mills College, Oakland

I feel well ‘fed’ by my participation in my classroom visits and weekly seminars where the entire group meets.  My work with each student teacher ends with a final 3 way evaluation meeting between the cooperating teacher (used to be called the Master Teacher), the student teacher, and me… These meetings will all be celebrations of success this year!

Central lawn area - Mills College Oakland

 2.  It is also the season of surprises in our garden - without any great decision to move in that direction I have many cactuses integrated into our garden - they grow nicely in and among other plants. 

This time of year is time that the cacti show their stuff.  When I go out in the morning I look to see which cacti are blooming their big extravagant blossoms. 

Several of them bloom for only one day (or one night) some are designed to be pollinated by bats that come in the night for nectar.

 Their ephemeral bloom just adds to their beauty.  Those pollinated by bees or birds have an exquisite perfume about them too.   My interest in cactus began in Mexico where I saw the marvelous uses the local people used cactus in their home gardens. 

Cactus garden in Oaxaca Mexico

 I really came to appreciate their unique form and features.  Once back home, I noticed one of my neighbors had some cactus in her yard. When I commented on them, she invited me into the back yard where she had a vast collection of mature specimen - some several feet tall.  

She said that I was free to take cuttings or dig up small offshoots of any that I wanted - how could I turn down such an offer?  Now, years later, those cactus have grown into large specimens. 

 One thing people often don’t realize is that cacti actually grow at a steady pace.- and they also send out little side shoots that make sharing easy.   Often people who try to grow them, over water them,  and then they die of rot – they will take a lot of drought!  A  sister in law introduced me to the huge variety of succulent plants - ands gave me a several to get started… 

So as a result I felt like I just gravitated into an arid garden - and I started selecting other plants that complement the cactus and succulents. The effect is a low water, low maintenance (weeds don’t grow if you water very little) - but its filled with a variety of textures, colors, and forms in all the seasons of the year,

2.     Since I spend a lot of time on the freeways travelling to visit my student teachers I have a very eclectic mix of radio stations I listen to.  All of these can also be listened to on line…

KQED - public radio http://www.kqed.org/radio, 

KALW - public radio - San Francisco http://kalw.org 

KKUP - A funky volunteer station - very diverse programming some wonderful - some horrible  http://tunein.com/radio/KKUP-915-s33617,

KZSU - Stanford University  Station - also diverse - some great, some not http://kzsu.stanford.edu, 

My preferred latino music station when I want to practice my Spanish http://recuerdo1003.univision.com/recuerdo-san-francisco,

Not my photo - but some road guy has a weird sense of humor

I want to highlight one weekly show that it the perfect answer to getting stuck in heavy traffic – Its on the Stanford station once a week - but you can stream it from their website… It's a conversation between a Progressive theologian and a Stanford biologist… it’s funny, and often profound…cancelthefun.com Click on a segment to listen on your computer: (Warning the first few minutes on the first segement are just a little silly – but hang in there is gerts good)

Get ready - Here they come!

First lets get a couple of things straight - 70% ( more or less ) of the bacteria living in and on our bodies are harmless and many of them are beneficial.   It is estimated that 500 to 1,000 species of bacteria live in the human gut.     Bacterial cells are much smaller than human cells, and there are at least ten times as many bacteria as human cells in the body.   The mass of microorganisms are estimated to account for 1-3% of your total body mass. (Wikipedia ) Some varieties in your intestines produce needed vitamins. 

Bacteria are really super simply cells - they have very few cell parts - not even a nucleus - their reproduction process is much simpler than other cells.  ...and in this blog we are only talking about bacteria - not other kids of disease causes like virus, prions, and fungus...

But the bad ones are really bad - and the cause of serious diseases and infections.  Through much of history getting a simple cut could turn fatal. Getting 'sick' was mysterious, dangerous, and the doctors had few tricks to deal with them.

Generalized diagram of bacteria

Then in the 20th century along came antibiotics. Antibiotics are made up of secretions produced by living microorganism  (usually bacteria or fungus) that blocks the growth of other microorganisms. There are also antibiotics originally produced by living cells, that are then modified chemically to change the disease fighting properties of the drug.  There are also diseases fighting compounds made completely synthetically in a laboratory - such as the sulfa drugs. 

One of the original antibiotics produced was developed from extracts collected from the mold that grows on citrus fruit or bread mold.  (Even in medieval times some herbalists treated wounds with a poultice of moldy bread – but they had no idea why it worked).

Comparison of sizes - E coli are a rather large bacteria common in the digestive tract

When first developed, these chemicals were considered miracle drugs – wounds, many bacterial illnesses could be treated with a high change of success.  It seemed that the age of death from infection had come to an end.  There were some limitations – Antibiotics work only against bacterial infections – they are useless with fungus or virus diseases.   If you get a cold the doctor tells you to get plenty of rest, drink lots of fluids… and perhaps treat the symptoms with aspirin..but not antibiotics!

There are 3 basic shapes for bacteria - long "hot dog shape" like this are called bacilli - the color is due to an artificial dye

The problem is that living things are capable of adapting to most any change we can imagine.  Imagine that out of 10 million bacterial cells an antibiotic is effective – but one bacterium undergoes a natural change in its genetic code.  This mutation can occur due to a random cosmic ray, radiation from the early, heat, chemicals…but it happens and the bacterium survives and divides.  This is true evolution by natural selection happening within a small time period of weeks. The offspring from that bacterium are resistant to the antibiotic – and can divide and produce a resistant population that can be shared with other people.  There are other antibiotics available and being developed.  Sometimes higher doses are more effective on blocking mutations… But always the bacteria are undergoing a normal small rate of mutations – and some of them block the effectiveness of the antibiotic.  Today many of our old standby antibiotics have lost their effectiveness.

Second shape - are little balls called 'cocci'

This is especially a problem if the doctor gives the patient 20 days of antibiotic treatment and the patient stops after 15 days, because he start to feel better.   If he had finished the full treatment the mutant bacteria had a higher chance of being destroyed.  As it is the mutants survived and could be passed on.

In many third world countries antibiotics are sold in sidewalk kiosks – much as we buy aspirin… You get a cold – go buy a few doses of penicillin.  Get venereal disease – take enough drugs to make the symptoms go away – then stop… The result is that every time a patient takes the drug, the overall effectiveness that drug is being reduced for later medical application

The third type are not so common - Spirochetes - the bacteria of human syphilis and the bacteria found in the termite gut

Giving massive amounts of antibiotics to farm animals to keep them alive until they can be sold as meat compounds the problem.  Many bacteria cross species lines – so wide spread use in animals increased the number of resistant mutant forms of bacteria in the world population, and reduces the effectiveness of that antibiotic

This week a report by the WHO (world health organization) stated that the world wide we are losing their power to fight infections.  New effective antibiotics cannot be developed faster than old reliable antibiotics are being lost to normal evolutionary changes through mutation.

Antibiotic resistance is a major threat to public health, says the WHO. It is no longer something to worry about in the future, but is happening now and could affect anybody, anywhere, of whatever age. 

There are  complex visual tests and dye tests to determine the type of bacteria
This is another bacillus with a different dye

Biologists have known about this problem for years - I taught it in my Biology class years ago - but this is the first time that the prestigious WHO has come out with so strong and definite a statement.

This is a world wide problem – not one country – what happens in any country to develop resistant disease organisms will ultimately affect us all The WHO says “No single country even with the best possible policies in place can address this issue alone. We need all countries to get together and discuss and put in practice possible solutions."

Some bacteria have many flagella that beat rhythmically or randomly to produce rather random movement

The WHO said “There have been no new classes of antibiotics for 25 years”.  Research is expensive and not financially feasible for industries alone… government funding is also not adequate to do this work.   WHO: "New antibiotics coming on to the market are not really new," he said. "They are variations of those we already have." That means that bacteria are likely to develop resistance to them that much sooner.

Bacillus with extra long flagella

So how can we implement a serious worldwide effort to diminish the use of antibiotics?

1.Doctors need to be sparing with them and use them only when absolutely necessary.  Patients must understand that antibiotics have no effect on virus diseases and minimize the overall effectiveness of the drug every time they are used…. Don't ask for it!

2.  A worldwide education problem, similar to the AIDS education program in the 1980s must be implemented.  When drugs are available on the street – average people have to get the word too.

3. Buy organic meat clearly labeled with a “no antibiotic” label.

4.  Simple washes your hands after contact with possible sources of bacteria.

5.  Support Federal funding of research to develop new antibiotics… Its possible but its expensive.

6.  Educate yourself on issues of bacterial mutation, evolution, and resistance to antibiotic chemicals