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Leiden’s Love Affair With Poems And Equations

Scattered throughout the city of Leiden, in The Netherlands, are over one hundred poems carefully hand-painted on the exterior walls of buildings. These include the works of Rimbaud, Shakespeare, W. B. Yeats, Marina Tsvetaeva, Dylan Thomas, Derek Walcott as well as local writers. Most of them are in Dutch and English. A couple of them are in Turkish, Moroccan, Chinese, Surinam, and other languages.

The Wall Poems project started in 1992 and was funded partly by the private Tegen-Beeld foundation of Ben Walenkamp and Jan-Willem Bruins, with additional funding coming from several corporations and the city of Leiden. The first poem was from the Russian poet Marina Tsvetaeva. The project officially concluded in 2005 with the Spanish poem De profundis by Federico Garcia Lorca, but new poems continued to be added as recently as 2010.

A wall poem in Leiden, the Netherlands.  

The city of Leiden has a special relationship with poetry. Historically, Leiden has been home to a remarkable number of writers. Numerous authors such as Piet Paaltjens, J.C. Bloem, Maarten Biesheuvel, Jan Wolkers and Maarten 't Hart, lived or studied here. Leiden’s famous university has traditionally attracted many scholars and scientists from all over the world. Many leading discoveries in the field of physics have been made at the University of Leiden such as the Snells law by Willebrord Snellius, and the Leyden jar invented by Pieter van Musschenbroek. Heike Kamerlingh Onnes liquefied helium for the first time here in Leiden and later managed to reach a temperature of less than one degree above the absolute minimum. Albert Einstein also spent some time at Leiden University during his early years. The city of Leiden boasts of thirteen Nobel Prize winners.

Inspired by this rich scientific heritage as well as the Wall Poems project, two physicists—Sense Jan van der Molen and Ivo van Fountain—began painting mathematical and physical formulas on house walls. The project, which started in 2015, is at a nascent stage, and so far only six walls have been painted. The project is supported by the municipality of Leiden.

 

 

 

Photo credit: Alessandro Grussu/Flickr

 

 

 

Formula for Lorentz force.  

Formula for Lorentz length contraction.  

Einstein field equations. 

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Drink Apple Cider Vinegar Every Day to Lose Weight and the Results Are Shocking

Apple cider vinegar  has been used for centuries. Many people believe that taking a few teaspoons of vinegar before meals can stimulate metabolism, reduce appetite and burn fat. Apple cider vinegar contains specific nutrients that help support your body’s natural functions like digestion. And when your body receives the nutrients it needs to function at its best, it sets the stage for natural weight loss. 

Apple cider vinegar and weight loss: is it a myth?

It is believed that apple cider vinegar accelerates weight loss, because it helps control blood sugar levels and suppress appetite.

A 2006 review article in the “Medscape Journal of Medicine” concludes vinegar may have a role in blood sugar control and appetite suppression. Other studies show vinegar may also promote weight loss by preventing fat accumulation through its impact on insulin secretion. This study led to the conclusion that vinegar intake reduces body weight, body fat mass and serum triglyceride levels.

Acetic acid (AcOH), a main component of vinegar, might help suppress body fat accumulation.

 

In a recent study, researchers found acetic acid slows down the body’s insulin response to carbohydrates like white bread.

The healthy individuals who participated in the study were also reported to have higher levels of satiety after consuming vinegar with bread, compared to those who only had the bread alone.

This suggests that acetic acid may help promote blood sugar balance and keep your appetite satisfied for longer: two factors that lead to natural weight loss.

Apple Cider Vinegar Helps with Detoxification

Apple cider vinegar contains a nutrient called pectin, a type of fiber that can help promote bowel regularity and natural detoxification .

Regular and healthy digestion is essential to weight loss. If you aren’t eliminating daily, waste builds up in your digestive tract and can be stored as extra pounds.

Why is Apple Cider Vinegar better to use?

Apple cider vinegar is often chosen over other vinegars for many reasons. Aside from possible weight loss support, apple cider vinegar contains detoxifying qualities and has strong anti-microbial properties. Apple cider vinegar is a helpful health tonic that has shown promise in helping diabetes, cancer, heart health, high cholesterol, free radical damage, digestion and acid reflux. Indeed, even if the evidence about weight loss is lacking, it can’t hurt to include apple cider vinegar in a diet.

How to use apple cider vinegar for weight loss?

The best way to use apple cider vinegar for weight loss is by drinking it mixed with water three times a day before meals.

Here are the steps I used:

• Shake the bottle of apple cider vinegar to mix it up.
• Pour one tablespoon apple cider vinegar into a cup.
• Pour one cup (eight ounces) of cold water into the cup with the vinegar.
• Drink the mixture 30 minutes to one hour prior to each meal.

My apple cider vinegar weight-loss results were surprising. I also recommend making this detox drink that will help your body burn fat, lose weight, fight diabetes, and more.

 “Apple Cider Vinegar Detox” Drink Recipe

1 glass water (12-16 oz.)
2 Tbsp. Bragg Apple Cider Vinegar
2 Tbsp. lemon juice
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 dash cayenne pepper
stevia to taste

This recipe detox drink willLemon juice helps balance blood sugar and has an alkaline effect on your body helping to regulate ph. It contains vitamin C. Cinnamon is one of the best anti-oxidants on the planet. It is the number 1 spice/herb for balancing blood sugar. Cayenne pepper has been shown to drop blood pressure and increase .

However, without healthy eating and enough physical activity, apple cider vinegar can not perform any miracles. But the consumption of apple cider vinegar may help to reduce body weight and fat mass, while giving lots of other health benefits.

8 Essential Oils to Help with Emotional Healing

Aromatherapists and natural medicine practitioners know that high quality essential oils can have dramatic effects on the mood of their clients. But, are the mood-enhancing effects of essential oils all in the head? Well, that depends on whether you mean the placebo effect or brain hormone balancers. A growing body of research shows that the mood-improving effects of essential oils is not all in the mind of the person experiencing the transformation, but the result of balancing hormones, particularly brain hormones like serotonin or adrenal hormones like cortisol.

BERGAMOT

The distinct flavor and aroma that gives Earl Grey tea its uniquely delightful experience can also improve your mental and emotional states. That’s because the oil that gives the tea its characteristic scent, bergamot, has also been found to reduce the hormone that is linked to high stress states, known as cortisone. Research shows that bergamot essential oil can lower anxiety and stress while also balancing cortisol levels, more than what rest alone can achieve.

CEDAR

Cedar essential oil won’t just keep the moths away, it may also keep the blues at bay. That’s because research published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health found that inhalation of cedar essential oil during monotonous work reduced the markers of stress and improved hormone balance. 

CLARY SAGE

Frequently used by aromatherapists to balance hormones in women, research in the medical journal Phytotherapy Research validates this traditional use. The study found that exposure to the natural scent clary sage increased the happiness hormone serotonin (5-hydroxytryptamine) while simultaneously reducing the stress hormone cortisol in menopausal women. The researchers concluded that clary sage essential oil had an anti-depressant-like effect on the women.

FRANKINCENSE

The resinous essential oil of frankincense contains a powerful therapeutic substance known as boswellic acid, which has been found in the study Molecular Neurobiology to reduce brain and nerve inflammation. Brain inflammation has been linked to depression. 

GERANIUM

Geranium has been found to be helpful in emotional healing linked to imbalanced hormones during perimenopause. Perimenopause is the time of a woman’s life when she starts experiencing menstrual changes up to 10 years prior to menopause. In a study published in the journal Neuro-Endocrinology Letters, researchers found that the essential oil’s effectiveness may be linked to its ability to restore falling estrogen levels during perimenopause.

LAVENDER

Lavender essential oil has been used to promote feelings of wellbeing, lift depression and ease anxiety, and plentiful research confirms that these mood-enhancing and emotional balancing effects are at least in part due to lavender’s effects on the brain. According to research published in Frontiers in Pharmacology to bind to serotonin receptor sites in the brain thereby reducing anxiety and improving our feelings of wellbeing.

ORANGE

Here’s a small but interesting study published in the medical journal Physiology & Behavior. Researchers divided study participants in a dental office into two groups: those who were subjected to orange essential oil prior to dental treatments and those who were not subjected to the smell of any oil before their dental appointments. People were evaluated and those who inhaled orange oil prior to their treatment had lower levels of anxiety, increased calmness and a better mood than the others.

VETIVER

Research in the medical journal Natural Products Research explored the effects of vetiver essential oil compared to the drug diazepam in its ability to reduce anxiety. Inhalation of vetiver essential oil had a comparable effect to the anti-anxiety drug. However, vetiver has not been linked to the lengthy list of side-effects of diazepam, including: lack of muscle coordination, stomach pain, headaches, confusion, blurry vision or the feelings of sadness or discouragement.

When it comes to essential oils, you usually get what you pay for. Cheap oils are often extended with artificial or other ingredients, making them have only negligible therapeutic benefits, if any at all. Worse than that, some cheap oils have been found to contain harmful ingredients and are best avoided.

Diffusing high quality essential oils in the air is one of the best ways to reap the beneficial effects of these powerful natural medicines. Burners are best avoided since the heat can damage the delicate oils, change their molecular structure or cause them to smoke. Add 5 to 8 drops of the oil or oils of your choice to a diffuser and diffuse for up to an hour.

3 Things You Can Do to Shake the Salt Habit

The two most prominent dietary risks for death and disability in the world are not eating enough fruit and eating too much salt. Eating too little fruit kills nearly five million people every year, and eating too much salt kills four million.

There are three things we can do to lower our salt intake. First, don’t add salt at the table. One third of us add salt to our food before even tasting it! Second, stop adding salt while you’re cooking. At first, the food may taste bland, but within two to four weeks, “as the sensitivity of the salt taste receptors in the mouth become more sensitive to the taste of salt in the usual concentrations”—believe it or not—you may actually prefer the taste of food with less salt. 

Some of the flavorings you can use in the meanwhile instead of salt include “pepper, onion, garlic, tomato, sweet pepper, basil, parsley, thyme, celery, lime, chilli, nettle, rosemary, smoke flavoring, curry, coriander and lemon.” Even if you did add salt while cooking, though, it’s probably better than eating out, where even at non-fast food restaurants, they tend to pile it on. And, finally, avoid processed foods that have salt added. In most countries, only about half of sodium intake comes from processed foods, so there’s more personal responsibility. In the United States, however, even if we completely stopped adding salt in the kitchen and dining room, it would only bring down salt intake a small fraction. This has led public health commentators to note how challenging it is for everyone to reduce their salt intake, since so much of our sodium intake is out of our control.

But is it? We don’t have to buy all those processed foods. We can choose not to turn over our family’s health to food corporations that may not have our best interests at heart. If we do buy processed foods, there are two tricks we can use. First, try to only buy foods with fewer milligrams of sodium listed on the label than there are grams in the serving size. So, if it’s a 100-gram serving size, it should have less than 100 mg of sodium. Or, second, shoot for fewer milligrams of sodium than there are calories. For example, if the sodium is listed as 720 and calories are 260, since 720 is greater than 260, the product has too much sodium. That’s a trick I learned from Jeff Novick, one of my favorite dieticians of all time. The reason it works is that most people get about 2,200 calories a day. So, if everything you ate had more calories than sodium, you’d at least get under 2,300 milligrams of sodium, which is the upper limit for healthy people under age 50.

Of course, the healthiest foods have no labels at all. We should try to buy as much fresh food as possible because it is almost impossible to come up with a diet consisting of unprocessed natural foodstuffs that exceeds the strict American Heart Association guidelines for sodium reduction.