R.I. senator announces whistleblower allegations of construction problems at Kennedy Center

Rhode Island Senator Sheldon Whitehouse speaks during an event protesting US President Trump's IRS settlement and his "Anti-Weaponization Fund" outside the US Capitol building in Washington, D.C.KENT NISHIMURA/AFP via Getty Images

A Democratic senator on Saturday alleged that whistleblowers have detailed several problems stemming from rushed or improper reconstruction of the Kennedy Center, adding a new layer to the travails of the arts complex as President Donald Trump tried to seize control of it and its name.

Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island said in a release on Saturday that he had received a whistleblower disclosure from the Government Accountability Project, a nonprofit whistleblower protection group, alleging that “the Center rushed a series of renovations driven by the President’s aesthetic whims and his desire to star in a series of televised events in December.”

“The Center’s subservience to the President’s desires and its corner-cutting contracting practices have resulted in steel columns that are rusting through fresh paint, a reflecting pool that may have to be torn out and rebuilt, and a brand-new bathroom floor torn out over an offending tile color,” Whitehouse continued. “This is waste, and it treats a national memorial to President Kennedy as if it were a private renovation project.”

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The Kennedy Center did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Trump seized control of the arts and culture venue, named after former President John F. Kennedy, at the beginning of his second term. Trump ousted the center’s prior leadership and replaced it with a Board of Trustees that named him chairman and added his name to the building.

Democrats sued to remove it and a federal judge ruled Trump’s name must come off the venue, which had been wracked with boycotts by artists during the turmoil. He tried to close the center for two years, only to be ordered to keep it open by the court because only Congress could change its name.

Whitehouse released a letter he wrote to the center’s executive director, Matt Floca, demanding answers by July 23. He said the whistleblower report included “firsthand accounts of multiple former Center project managers, supported by contemporaneous documents and photographs.” He also included an 83-page appendix full of internal center documents, emails and photos of apparently shoddy construction.

The allegations include that the center rushed work before it was authorized by Congress because it wanted it to be complete for Trump to accept the new FIFA Peace Prize that the soccer federation awarded him. In doing so, the letter alleges the center didn’t follow required contracting guidelines and wasted money replacing a bathroom because the president didn’t like the color and inking no-bid contracts. One $8 million contract to replace the concert hall’s floor went to a firm with no experience in concert halls, Whitehouse contended.

Nothing natural is evil. Marcus Aurelius

It’s the birthday of American author, poet, philosopher, abolitionist, tax resister, and transcendentalist Henry David Thoreau, born in Concord, Massachusetts (1817). After graduating from Harvard, he worked in his father’s pencil factory. He taught for a time, but resigned because he didn’t want to administer corporal punishment. He opened a school with his brother, John, but John caught tetanus after cutting himself shaving and died in Thoreau’s arms. 

 He went to work for Ralph Waldo Emerson, the poet and leader of the American transcendentalist movement. Thoreau moved into Emerson’s house and tutored his children. After he accidentally burned down 300 acres of woods near Concord, his friend Ellery Channing told him: “Go out upon that, build yourself a hut, and there begin the grand process of devouring yourself alive. I see no other alternative, no other hope for you.”  

On July 4, 1845, Thoreau entered the woods at Walden Pond near Concord, built a small cabin, and spent two years, two months, and two days listening to whip-poor-wills singing, frogs croaking, and owls hooting. He cultivated beans, ate fish, salt pork, and woodchuck, and spent considerable time pondering which pond was more beautiful: Walden Pond, Flint’s Pond, or White Pond. He always left three chairs ready for visitors. It was a grand experiment: to see if simple self-sufficiency could lead to a greater, more objective understanding of society. 

 It took almost nine years for Thoreau to complete his book on his experience in the woods. He titled the book Walden; or, A Life in the Woods (1854). The book became the foundation for the future movements of ecology and environmentalism. Thoreau developed a penchant for yoga and Hinduism. He contracted tuberculosis, which set his health back, and after spending a rainy evening counting tree rings on a stump, he developed bronchitis and never recovered. On his deathbed, his Aunt Louise asked if he had made his peace with God. Thoreau replied, “I did not know we had ever quarreled.” 

 In Walden, Thoreau writes: “I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan- like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms, and, if it proved to be mean, why then to get the whole and genuine meanness of it, and publish its meanness to the world; or if it were sublime, to know it by experience, and be able to give a true account of it in my next excursion.”

President John F. Kennedy delivered this famous line on September 14, 1962, at a dinner in Newport, Rhode Island. He noted that humanity's biological connection to the sea means returning to the ocean is a return to our origins.The famous quote is:"We are tied to the ocean. And when we go back to the sea, whether it is to sail or to watch it, we are going back from whence we came."

This famous and evocative quote comes from anthropologist and nature writer Loren Eiseley’s 1957 book, The Immense Journey. Specifically, it appears in the essay "The Flow of the River", where he wrote: "If there is magic on this planet, it is contained in water."

Neurotransmitters

Medically Reviewed.Last updated on 03/14/2022.

Neurotransmitters are your body’s chemical messengers. They carry messages from one nerve cell across a space to the next nerve, muscle or gland cell. These messages help you move your limbs, feel sensations, keep your heart beating, and take in and respond to all information your body receives from other internal parts of your body and your environment.

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Neurotransmitters carry chemical signals (“messages”) from one neuron (nerve cell) to the next target cell.

What are neurotransmitters?

Neurotransmitters are chemical messengers that your body can’t function without. Their job is to carry chemical signals (“messages”) from one neuron (nerve cell) to the next target cell. The next target cell can be another nerve cell, a muscle cell or a gland.

Your body has a vast network of nerves (your nervous system) that send and receive electrical signals from nerve cells and their target cells all over your body. Your nervous system controls everything from your mind to your muscles, as well as organ functions. In other words, nerves are involved in everything you do, think and feel. Your nerve cells send and receive information from all body sources. This constant feedback is essential to your body’s optimal function.

What body functions do nerves and neurotransmitters help control?

Your nervous system controls such functions as your:

• Heartbeat and blood pressure.
• Breathing.
• Muscle movements.
• Thoughts, memory, learning and feelings.
• Sleep, healing and aging.
• Stress response.
• Hormone regulation.
• Digestion, sense of hunger and thirst.
• Senses (response to what you see, hear, feel, touch and taste).

How do neurotransmitters work?

You have billions of nerve cells in your body. Nerve cells are generally made up of three parts:

• A cell body. The cell body is vital to producing neurotransmitters and maintaining the function of the nerve cell.
• An axon. The axon carries the electrical signals along the nerve cell to the axon terminal.
• An axon terminal. This is where the electrical message is changed to a chemical signal using neurotransmitters to communicate with the next group of nerve cells, muscle cells or organs.

Neurotransmitters are located in a part of the neuron called the axon terminal. They’re stored within thin-walled sacs called synaptic vesicles. Each vesicle can contain thousands of neurotransmitter molecules.

As a message or signal travels along a nerve cell, the electrical charge of the signal causes the vesicles of neurotransmitters to fuse with the nerve cell membrane at the very edge of the cell. The neurotransmitters, which now carry the message, are then released from the axon terminal into a fluid-filled space that’s between one nerve cell and the next target cell (another nerve cell, muscle cell or gland).

In this space, called the synaptic junction, the neurotransmitters carry the message across less than 40 nanometers (nm) wide (by comparison, the width of a human hair is about 75,000 nm). Each type of neurotransmitter lands on and binds to a specific receptor on the target cell (like a key that can only fit and work in its partner lock). After binding, the neurotransmitter then triggers a change or action in the target cell, like an electrical signal in another nerve cell, a muscle contraction or the release of hormones from a cell in a gland.

What action or change do neurotransmitters transmit to the target cell?

Neurotransmitters transmit one of three possible actions in their messages, depending on the specific neurotransmitter.

• Excitatory. Excitatory neurotransmitters “excite” the neuron and cause it to “fire off the message,” meaning, the message continues to be passed along to the next cell. Examples of excitatory neurotransmitters include glutamate, epinephrine and norepinephrine.
• Inhibitory. Inhibitory neurotransmitters block or prevent the chemical message from being passed along any farther. Gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), glycine and serotonin are examples of inhibitory neurotransmitters.
• Modulatory. Modulatory neurotransmitters influence the effects of other chemical messengers. They “tweak” or adjust how cells communicate at the synapse. They also affect a larger number of neurons at the same time.

What happens to neurotransmitters after they deliver their message?

After neurotransmitters deliver their message, the molecules must be cleared from the synaptic cleft (the space between the nerve cell and the next target cell). They do this in one of three ways.

Neurotransmitters:

• Fade away (a process called diffusion).
• Are reabsorbed and reused by the nerve cell that released it (a process called reuptake).
• Are broken down by enzymes within the synapse so it can’t be recognized or bind to the receptor cell (a process called degradation).

How many different types of neurotransmitters are there?

Scientists know of at least 100 neurotransmitters and suspect there are many others that have yet to be discovered. They can be grouped into types based on their chemical nature. Some of the better-known categories and neurotransmitter examples and their functions include the following:

Amino acids neurotransmitters

These neurotransmitters are involved in most functions of your nervous system.

• Glutamate. This is the most common excitatory neurotransmitter of your nervous system. It’s the most abundant neurotransmitter in your brain. It plays a key role in cognitive functions like thinking, learning and memory. Imbalances in glutamate levels are associated with Alzheimer’s disease, dementia, Parkinson’s disease and seizures.
• Gamma-aminobutryic acid (GABA). GABA is the most common inhibitory neurotransmitter of your nervous system, particularly in your brain. It regulates brain activity to prevent problems in the areas of anxiety, irritability, concentration, sleep, seizures and depression.
• Glycine. Glycine is the most common inhibitory neurotransmitter in your spinal cord. Glycine is involved in controlling hearing processing, pain transmission and metabolism.

Monoamines neurotransmitters

These neurotransmitters play a lot of different roles in your nervous system and especially in your brain. Monoamines neurotransmitters regulate consciousness, cognition, attention and emotion. Many disorders of your nervous system involve abnormalities of monoamine neurotransmitters, and many drugs that people commonly take affect these neurotransmitters.

• Serotonin. Serotonin is an inhibitory neurotransmitter. Serotonin helps regulate mood, sleep patterns, sexuality, anxiety, appetite and pain. Diseases associated with serotonin imbalance include seasonal affective disorder, anxiety, depression, fibromyalgia and chronic pain. Medications that regulate serotonin and treat these disorders include selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) and serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs).
• Histamine. Histamine regulates body functions including wakefulness, feeding behavior and motivation. Histamine plays a role in asthma, bronchospasm, mucosal edema and multiple sclerosis.
• Dopamine. Dopamine plays a role in your body’s reward system, which includes feeling pleasure, achieving heightened arousal and learning. Dopamine also helps with focus, concentration, memory, sleep, mood and motivation. Diseases associated with dysfunctions of the dopamine system include Parkinson’s disease, schizophrenia, bipolar disease, restless legs syndrome and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Many highly addictive drugs (cocaine, methamphetamines, amphetamines) act directly on the dopamine system.
• Epinephrine. Epinephrine (also called adrenaline) and norepinephrine (see below) are responsible for your body’s so-called “fight-or-flight response” to fear and stress. These neurotransmitters stimulate your body’s response by increasing your heart rate, breathing, blood pressure, blood sugar and blood flow to your muscles, as well as heighten attention and focus to allow you to act or react to different stressors. Too much epinephrine can lead to high blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease and other health problems. As a drug, epinephrine is used to treat anaphylaxis, asthma attacks, cardiac arrest and severe infections.
• Norepinephrine. Norepinephrine (also called noradrenaline) increases blood pressure and heart rate. It’s most widely known for its effects on alertness, arousal, decision-making, attention and focus. Many medications (stimulants and depression medications) aim to increase norepinephrine levels to improve focus or concentration to treat ADHD or to modulate norepinephrine to improve depression symptoms.

Peptide neurotransmitters

Peptides are polymers or chains of amino acids.

• Endorphins. Endorphins are your body’s natural pain reliever. They play a role in our perception of pain. Release of endorphins reduces pain, as well as causes “feel good” feelings. Low levels of endorphins may play a role in fibromyalgia and some types of headaches.

Acetylcholine

This excitatory neurotransmitter does a number of functions in your central nervous system (CNS [brain and spinal cord]) and in your peripheral nervous system (nerves that branch from the CNS). Acetylcholine is released by most neurons in your autonomic nervous system regulating heart rate, blood pressure and gut motility. Acetylcholine plays a role in muscle contractions, memory, motivation, sexual desire, sleep and learning. Imbalances in acetylcholine levels are linked with health issues, including Alzheimer’s disease, seizures and muscle spasms.

Why would a neurotransmitter not work as it should?

Several things can go haywire and lead to neurotransmitters not working as they should. In general, some of these problems include:

• Too much or not enough of one or more neurotransmitters are produced or released.
• The receptor on the receiver cell (the nerve, muscle or gland) isn’t working properly. The otherwise normal functioning neurotransmitter can’t effectively signal the next cell.
• The cell receptors aren’t taking up enough neurotransmitter due to inflammation and damage of the synaptic cleft (see myasthenia gravis).
• Neurotransmitters are reabsorbed too quickly.
• Enzymes limit the number of neurotransmitters from reaching their target cell.

Problems with other parts of nerves, existing diseases or medications you may be taking can affect neurotransmitters. Also, when neurotransmitters don’t function as they should, disease can happen. For example:

• Not enough acetylcholine can lead to the loss of memory that’s seen in Alzheimer’s disease.
• Too much serotonin is possibly associated with autism spectrum disorders.
• An increase in activity of glutamate or reduced activity of GABA can result in sudden, high-frequency firing of local neurons in your brain, which can cause seizures.
• Too much norepinephrine and dopamine activity and abnormal glutamate transmission contribute to mania.

 It’s the birthday of poet Pablo Neruda, born Neftali Ricardo Reyes Basoalto in Parral, Chile (1904). In 1923, when he was 19, he sold all his possessions in order to publish his first book, Crepusculario (Twilight). Because his father didn’t approve of his writing poetry, he published it under the pen name Pablo Neruda. In 1924, he published Veinte poemas de amor y una canción desesperada, known in English as Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair, which made him famous. Neruda always wrote in green ink, because he believed it was the color of hope.

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Mango Lemonade

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Osteoporosis

 https://www.health.harvard.edu/topics/osteoporosis

We are Chemistry Sets

 Your own body is indeed the ultimate laboratory. Every second, it runs trillions of complex biochemical reactions that regulate your mood, energy, and overall health. By understanding how to influence these internal chemical reactions, you can directly optimize how you feel and perform. [1, 2]

The following key systems act as your body's primary chemical messengers:

• Dopamine: The "motivation molecule." It drives desire, focus, and the satisfaction of achieving goals. You can stimulate healthy dopamine production by setting small, actionable milestones, exercising, and eating foods rich in L-tyrosine (like almonds, avocados, and bananas). [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]
• Serotonin: The mood stabilizer. It heavily influences your feelings of happiness, anxiety, and sleep. Boost your natural levels by getting morning sunlight Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health to trigger natural production, eating complex carbohydrates, and staying physically active.
• Endorphins: Your natural painkillers. These are neurotransmitters released in response to stress or discomfort to help reduce pain and trigger feelings of euphoria. You can trigger this chemical response through vigorous exercise, laughter, and even eating spicy foods. [1, 2]
• Oxytocin: Known as the "bonding hormone." It promotes trust, empathy, and relationship-building. It is released through physical touch, socializing with loved ones, and even playing with pets. [1]
• Cortisol & Adrenaline: Your stress chemistry. While essential for survival and alertness, chronic elevation can lead to burnout. Manage these chemicals through deep breathing, meditation, and ensuring you get quality sleep to allow your system to reset. [1]

Harvard Health Newsletter https://www.health.harvard.edu/category/staying-healthy

Does exercising at night affect sleep? I have heard that you should not exercise at night because it can cause sleep problems. Is this true?

A. Traditionally, experts have recommended not exercising at night as part of good sleep hygiene. However, a small study, published in Sports Medicine suggests that some people can exercise in the evening as long as they avoid vigorous activity for at least one hour before bedtime.

The researchers examined 23 studies that evaluated sleep onset and quality in healthy adults who performed a single session of evening exercise compared with similar adults who did not. They found that not only did evening exercise not affect sleep, it seemed to help people fall asleep faster and spend more time in deep sleep. However, those who did high-intensity exercise - such as interval training - less than one hour before bedtime took longer to fall asleep and had poorer sleep quality.

Despite the findings in this particular study, I generally recommend against strenuous physical activity for at least two hours before getting into bed.

In addition to regular exercise, you can help achieving quality sleep by doing the following:

• Set a regular bedtime and adopt a relaxing bedtime routine.
• Turn off devices that give off light, such as the TV, computer, and phone, at least 15 to 30 minutes before bedtime.
• Be sure your bed is comfortable and your bedroom is dark, quiet, and cool.
• Don't take long naps during the day. If you need a nap, restrict it to 20 to 30 minutes in the early afternoon.
• If you can't fall asleep after 15 to 20 minutes, go to another room. Read quietly with a dim light until you feel sleepy.

Authentic Pesto Genovese

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Sunflower Basil Pesto

 I used what I had on hand and it was delicious. Many cloves of Fresh garlic, abou 2 cups of fresh basil, raw unsalted sunflower seeds, olive oil, red wine vinegar, leftover pieces of cheddar cheese!

Never forget that the truest luxury is imagination, and that being a writer gives you the leeway to exploit all of the imagination’s curious intricacies, to be what you were, what you are, what you will be, and what everyone else is or was or will be, too.

ANDREW SOLOMON

Nausea: La Nausée by Jean-Paul Sartre

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nausea_(novel)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Nausea

La Nausée by Jean-Paul Sartre
Author	Jean-Paul Sartre
Original title	La Nausée
Translator	Lloyd Alexander; Robert Baldick
Language	French
Genre	Philosophical novel
Published	1938 (Éditions Gallimard, in French) 1949 (in English)
Publication place	France
Media type	Print (paperback)
Pages	248 (Gallimard), 253 (Penguin)
ISBN	978-0-141-19484-4 (Penguin UK edition)
OCLC	8028693

Nausea (French: La Nausée) is a philosophical novel by the existentialist philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre, published in 1938. It is Sartre's first novel.^[1][2]

The novel takes place in 'Bouville' (homophone of Boue-ville, literally, 'Mud town') a town similar to Le Havre.^[3] It comprises the thoughts and subjective experiences—in a personal diary format—of Antoine Roquentin, a melancholic and socially isolated intellectual who is residing in Bouville ostensibly for the purpose of completing a biography on a historical figure. Roquentin's growing alienation and disillusionment coincide with an increasingly intense experience of revulsion, which he calls "the Nausea", in which the people and things around him seem to lose all their familiar and recognizable qualities. Sartre's original title for the novel before publication was Melancholia.

The novel has been translated into English by Lloyd Alexander as The Diary of Antoine Roquentin^[3] and by Robert Baldick as Nausea.^[4]

 

The City

“By comparison with other less hectic days, the city is uncomfortable and inconvenient; but New Yorkers temperamentally do not crave comfort and convenience- if they did they would live elsewhere.”
― E B White, Here Is New York

“But the city makes up for its hazards and its deficiencies by supplying its citizens with massive doses of a supplementary vitamin-the sense of belonging to something unique, cosmopolitan, mighty and unparalleled. . . .”
― E.B. White, Here Is New York

“A poem compresses much in a small space and adds music, thus heightening its meaning. The city is like poetry: it compresses all life, all races and breeds, into a small island and adds music and the accompaniment of internal engines. The island of Manhattan is without any doubt the greatest human concentrate on earth, the poem whose magic is comprehensible to millions of permanent residents but whose full meaning will always remain elusive.” ― E.B. White, Here Is New York

 “There are roughly three New Yorks. There is, first, the New York of the man or woman who was born here, who takes the city for granted and accepts its size and its turbulence as natural and inevitable. Second, there is the New York of the commuter — the city that is devoured by locusts each day and spat out each night. Third, there is the New York of the person who was born somewhere else and came to New York in quest of something.
...Commuters give the city its tidal restlessness; natives give it solidity and continuity; but the settlers give it passion. ”
― E.B. White, Here Is New York

“Genius is more often found in a cracked pot than in a whole one.” ― E.B. White