Standing up to bullies

As Trump gets ready to regain power in the US, I would hope that its opposition handles his bullying behavior much more robustly than it did during the man’s first term. To handle bullies, one must answer them quickly and forcefully and I would recommend a force response ratio of 3 to 1.

This is perfectly called for as we don't have to tolerate their behavior and that a disproportionate response will scare the bejesus out of them. Here are some fitting strategies. 

First it’s essential to assert oneself as bullies thrive on fear and intimidation. Ignoring their behavior will always embolden them. It’s time tto stand for what we believe is right, by using forceful, yet respectful language and clearly communicate what behavior will and will not be tolerated. 

Make sure to let others know about the bullying in seeking widespread support and using the available means (media and such) to broadcast it in a loud manner and tone. We must remember to focus on our strength, positive qualities and accomplishments as we’re not, for the most part, convicted felons! 

While some will recommend avoiding escalation and walking away, I’m convinced that’s good advice. One needs to respond extremely intensely and loudly to discourage any further attempt at bullying and turn that venom around straight in the perpetrator’s face (fight fire with treble intensity and don’t do as Jesus said by turning the other cheek.) 

The bottom line is that to fight a bully, one has to check fear at the door and be ready to deliver a really punishing blow and create a shocking surprise so bullies won’t even think of doing it again!

The sciatic nerve’s “long arm…”

When I had my slip-and-fall accident, my buttock’s piriformis muscle pinched my right sciatic nerve, but that son of a gun kept the pain going and carried it downstream alongside my thigh, my knee, my lower leg and even my ankle 9 days later. It also went back and “tickled” my lower spine in recent days, more than 10 days after the accident occurred. 

In addition to that invasive bad behavior, I got an attack 3 days ago from the radial nerve, on the same right side, the one that works with our arms and hands, in which my wrist and lower arm became stiff, swollen and exhibited all the signs of carpal syndrome. 

This latter problem seems now to be losing some of its sting. So, all this made me think that there might be a connection, a connivance of sorts, between these two giant nerves. 

My initial research on the subject tells me “NO”, but deep inside I’m not yet convinced… Sure, l learned that the sciatic and radial nerves are peripheral nerves, meaning they’re coming out of the brain and spinal cord. 

Both contribute to motor function in controlling muscle movement. The sciatic nerve controls muscles in the back of the leg and foot, while the radial nerve controls muscles in the back of the arm and hand. 

They’re also susceptible to being injured, compressed or irritated, leading to pain, numbness, tingling, and weakness. What’s different about them is their origins and functions as the sciatic nerve originates from the lower spine (L4-S3 nerve roots) in the lumbar region, while the radial nerve stems out of the cervical spine (C5-T1 nerve roots) in the neck region. 

Still I can’t comprehend what had “woken up” the radial nerve while the sciatic one was being pinched and acted out. I continue to believe that a big problem with the sciatic nerve “provoked” the radial nerve to manifest itself. 

This remains a total mystery, a troubling coincidence and I’m awfully tempted in connecting these two dots...

The power of sand inside cogs…

An interesting way to effectively resist autocratic leaders, or any dictator for that matter, is to think small, like a grain of sand, into what would be an oppressing machine with cog wheels all over (think of a giant gearbox). 

These mechanical devices don’t enjoy the presence of pesky hard foreign particles that will impede their smooth function and eventually cause them to stop. A perfect illustration for the expression "Sand in the gears" means to cause problems or prevent something from happening as it should. Sand can cause significant damage to cogwheels. 

So for people who don’t look forward to having a despotic president about to seize power, that’s the solution for resisting instead of fleeing their own country. They just have to turn into that lowly grain of sand that causes some of the following problems to the big gearbox we’re talking about. 

The most obvious one is abrasion, even with tiny but hard stone particles that get crushed between the teeth of the cogwheels, acting like sandpaper and causing wear and tear. If this abrasion persists it will lead to the teeth of the cogwheels becoming rounded or chipped, reducing their ability to mesh or lead properly. 

This causes increased friction between gears, leading to increased wear and tear and potentially overheating. Eventually, sand can get trapped between the teeth of the cogwheels in such ways nothing can turn smoothly and potentially causing the mechanism jams. 

The severity of the damage will depend on several factors, starting with the type of sand, as fine sand is generally more abrasive and in time can cause more wear than coarse sand that’s more capable of bringing the system to stop faster. 

If no one sees the grain of sand entering the machine, so much the better, and sooner than later will the horrible device come to a screeching halt. Just remember that!

How to stop crazy Musk

European governments have a couple of very simple options when it comes to Elon Musk’s interference with their political systems. 

First, all elected officials in the EC, from municipal council members to Presidents should immediately boycott X (ex-Tweeter) and stop using it. 

Then the EC should ask celebrities, movers and shakers, the entire press and the rest of the population to do the same in order to shut Musk’s imbecile big mouth who has somehow decided he wants to rule the world. 

Just give it about a month and if everyone is still stuck to the platform, shut it off sine die throughout the 27 country members. 

Addiction being hard to break, the EC would probably have to opt for the later option, then “Sayonara” Elon!

Finally free from the Holidays!

The Holiday Season brings lots of joy and afford all of us to get together with family and friends, both physically and through all possible means of communications, but it also compels us to build these events in a variety of ways that are always time and resource consuming, require adjustments to make everyone comfortable and plenty of creativity along the way, if we want them to be memorable and successful.

This ends up costing plenty of energy no matter how good, strong and young we are, and I would add, the best at this recurrent routine it we are, the easiest it seems to flow and get where we want it to go. So when the lights are being turned off and the curtain closes, it’s always a welcome sight of relief, until of course next Holiday Season!

Is skiing key to longevity?

A few days ago, Nicole Denis, a veteran ski instructor from Avoriaz, France, sent me that great video of one of her students, an Austrian-born baroness Barbara von Schmidburg who has come to the Avoriaz ski resort since its creation in the late 60s and has skied ever since under the guidance of Nicole. 

The clip captured on the Swiss side of the Portes du Soleil, this large international interconnect straddling France and Switzerland, 20 miles north of Chamonix. 

The place has been enjoying great snow conditions that at the very least require skiers to “turn’em”, but what’s very special is the age of that noble lady: eighty seven year young! I can only hope that I’ll manage to ski nearly as well ten years from now if and when I reach that age as a skier! 

A long delayed diagnostic!

Going back to my end-of-year fall on the butt and my landing urgently at the ICU, my hurting posterior still has to be addressed and repaired, which in fact is both funny and concerning because it still hurts like hell, I can still barely put on my underpants, pants, socks and shoes on my own, and no skiing to boot, excuse the play on words, because it’s been impossible for me to get into my super stiff ski-boots, even if a third party tried to help. 

That means skiing must wait, even though the Ski Patrol strike might eventually be over and the tourists are mostly all gone! So the brilliant doctors attending to me all focused on the cardiac problem I didn’t have and instead didn’t investigate my intensely hurting buttock. 

With the Holidays, it’s also been tricky to schedule any physical therapy, so I did the next best thing I could, which is to educate myself by putting on my white smock, pretending I was a young intern and going on the Web to come up with a good diagnostic. 

Clearly, I had to fall on my “piriformis muscle” and injured it badly in the process. I’m pretty sure you’d never heard of that muscle, but we all have a pair and now you do. 

That muscle is where the center of bruise is located. It got inflamed after I fell, probably grew enough in volume to apply undue pressure on the nearby sciatic nerve, leading to acute pain and irritation alongside the leg, in other words causing a form of sciatica. 

The schematic tells the story better than I could ever do, but even better than the medical folks who handled me and forgot to look at that, which is quite astounding and shows that medical acumen if it ever existed isn’t always put to good use!