How to give up smoking.

26th May 2012

So here we go. The time to make up your mind and to commit. You've decided to give up smoking and have been putting off the start day for long enough. No more excuses, no more, "I'll stop when it's right for me", "I still enjoy smoking'' "I'm not addicted to nicotine, I can stop whenever I like."

A number of years ago, following half-hearted attempts to stop smoking in the past using various methods, I bought Allen Carr's The Only Way to Stop Smoking Permanently. I had tried patches, gum and will power only to find myself going back to smoking after relatively short periods of cessation, having lost friends and punched holes in walls through frustration.

The reason why I don't like replacement methods is primarily because these do not cure the addiction; they merely pamper to it while making lots of money for corrupt corporations which take advantage of the afflictions of those dependent on nicotine.

While replacing one addiction with another, you may indeed reduce your chance of developing cancer but the buzz caused by nicotine will still continue to affect your heart rate, and if there is a way of stopping altogether, wouldn't you rather do that?

I had stopped for the seventh time, trying once again the will-power method and felt I needed a bit of help so I bought Allen Carr's book. I recommend buying the book if only for the reason that Allen Carr uses proceeds from sales to set up very successful stop-smoking clinics around the world.

I had been nicotine-free for a few days when I started reading Allen Carr's book and was almost tempted to start smoking again. At the beginning of the book, he assumes that the reader is an active smoker and recommends you not to stop until reaching a certain chapter in the book when he tells you to stop. I am glad that I decided not to start smoking again at that point and am very grateful that I read the book.

He explains the science behind addiction in an easy-to-understand manner and encourages positive thinking as the best method to stop and stay nicotine-free.

To stop smoking, you need only to tell yourself to stop and to continuously encourage yourself through positive thinking but first you need to understand how the addiction works and will continue to plague you for the first three days. Once you have smoked and built up a dependency on nicotine, the addiction will stay with you for three days. If you start smoking again, even if it is one cigarette or a few puffs, the addiction will return and you will have to start from scratch again.

Having initially stopped, you will feel pangs for nicotine and the addiction will take every opportunity to break your will. All it needs is for a small dose of nicotine to reinforce the addiction so it is important not to give in and it is for this reason why methods like trying to cut down slowly are so ineffectual. Once you have decided to give up, you must stick to your decision and do all you can to encourage yourself in this.

You do this by reinforcing positive thoughts; you think to yourself over and over again using a mantra-like chant. Do not be put off by this. It is not religious or hippy, or Buddhist. Whenever you find yourself thinking about having a cigarette, you simply say to yourself, "I am so happy I am a non-smoker. I am so happy I am not addicted to nicotine anymore." You will be doing this a lot at first.

This is similar to the image-building method I mentioned briefly when I wrote about developing fitness goals. It is important to make sure you speak in the present, the here and now. "I am a non-smoker." Once you have decided to stop, from this point on you are now a non-smoker.

There will be times when you will feel the urge to smoke is stronger than at other times. This might be when you see other people smoking. Instead of thinking, "Those lucky people. I could really do with a cigarette now", think, "I am so lucky I don't need to smoke. Look at those poor people."

The temptation to smoke again may never be stronger than when you are out socialising especially if drink is involved. It is best to avoid such situations or at least avoid drinking alcohol during the first three weeks or so. Better still, make this an opportunity to really turn your life around and give up alcohol as well. Although the actual physical dependency on nicotine will have left your body after approximately three days, the actual psychological habit of having a cigarette between your fingers, putting it in your mouth, dragging on it and inhaling smoke into your lungs stays with you for longer. This diminishes over time and any habit avoided for three weeks is considerably weakened. After three months of successfully avoiding an old habit, you are said to be finally cured.

I succeeded before and I mean to succeed again. After 20 years of smoking, not exercising and leading a very sedentary life, I gave up smoking, took up running and weight training and after three months I was cured of asthma, I was running 10 mile charity runs and half marathons with times that put me in the top 3% for my age and the top 5% in the world overall. At the age of 40.

It can be done and really is worth it. The air smells and tastes better, you wake up with a clear head, you can walk up the stairs easily and you no longer have the aches and pains that you didn't realise were related to smoking.

Give it a go and remember; positive thinking conquers all.

I am so happy I am a non-smoker.

White nights.

25th May 2012

Tonight will be the first all white night of my life although it felt like an all white night last night. I didn't get to sleep until 4 in the morning and it was light enough in my room with the blinds drawn to see clearly the whole time.

In St. Petersburg and Helsinki, which are more southerly than where I am in Kauhava, they refer to these summer nights as White Nights. Although the sun does set, it doesn't get dark as it is never more than 6 degrees below the horizon.

In Kauhava, however, it stays brighter for longer and it will not get dark again until the 18th of July when the sun will be just more than 6 degrees south of the horizon for one hour. In fact it won't really get truly dark - civil twilight will be curtailed and we shall enter nautical twilight for one hour.

This is the season for outdoor concerts and frolicking fun in the midnight sun. Midsummer events are planned and if I can get any sleep and conserve enough energy, I may just have to go and sample a few, for purely journalistic purposes of course.

Eating, sleeping and training. How to grow stronger muscles.

23rd May 2012

I am investigating body-weight-only exercises that build strength and muscle mass. Most of these exercises, that do not require a membership to a gym and can be done in the privacy of your own room, can be found on exrx.net.

Click on Exercise Instruction or Weight Training on the homepage, then click on Exercise & Muscle Directory. This page is divided into two columns with Exercises on the left followed by the names of different body parts. If you click on a body part, you will be directed to a page showing all the exercises relevant to that particular part of the body. In the right hand column here, you will see Body Weight exercises.

You should always bare in mind that a fitness regime is pointless unless the correct nutrition and sleeping programme are also followed. You do not grow stronger while doing exercises. You may appear to be getting stronger during the initial twelve weeks or so of exercise but all that is happening is that your muscles are learning how best to overcome this new task.

The body will try to do all that it can to conserve energy and during the first twelve weeks the body starts to call on all the necessary muscle fibres required to do the job. At the end of this initiation process, your muscles will have reached saturation point and it is from this point onwards that you will be able to push the body beyond where it's ever been before and you will gradually start to develop new muscle.

You need to combine your exercise with a balanced diet that contains the correct amount of good quality protein with all the amino acids required for building muscle strength and mass. Unfortunately for vegetarians, the best quality protein with all the muscle building amino acids are found in meat, fish and milk products. You need also to eat the correct amount of carbohydrates for energy and the right type of fat and you need to stop eating empty calories. I shall write about this in more detail in a future post but finally you need to remember that you only grow stronger after exercising and eating correctly but this only happens if you sleep properly, too.

You grow in bed not in the gym.

Alien life forms and UFO sightings

20th May 2012

A few days ago I started doing some simple research into trying to prove that UFO sightings here on earth were not possible and what are reported as such were hoaxes or natural phenomena that could be either explained or not.

I have felt a slight sense of alarm at the almost manic levels of excitement displayed by some for the so-called increase in alien activity and the prospect of the end of the world - again. There is a misguided belief that the Maya Calendar ends on 21st December 2012 and that this marks the end of the universe or some such thing*.

I thought I would be able to use some universal constants such as E=mc² to prove that it would not be possible for aliens to travel the huge distances necessary to come and see us but I might be wrong.

The Big Bang occurred 14 billion years ago and earth is about 4.54 billion years old, plus or minus 0.05 billion years. If we could measure our distance from the centre of the Big Bang, we might be able to calculate the distance of our nearest alien neighbours capable of space- and perhaps even time-travel.

However, it is wrong to think about the Big Bang as a normal kind of explosion with a centre from which the contents of the bomb exit in an ever increasing and three dimensional arc. The Big Bang does not have a centre as such as it occurred everywhere at the same time - it's best to think about the Big Bang as being like the surface of an infinite balloon which expands equally in all directions at the same time.

It is possible to calculate or estimate how long is required for a civilisation to develop in the right conditions to be able to achieve certain fundamentals required for the survival of the species. If a civilisation can survive long enough, it will be able to develop technologies that we can only dream of. It is possible to imagine an alien life form that might be capable of travelling at the speed of light.

However, before this can be possible, the priority for a civilisation is the survival of certain epochal events. The most common such event that can threaten the continuation of a species is a meteor collision. The second is an ice age. Catastrophic meteor collisions occur about once every 2-3 thousand years and ice ages on planets capable of fostering life every 10 thousand years or so. If a civilisation can develop to such a level as to be able to keep in tact all that has been learnt up to and following these two events, then they might possibly be able to develop the ability to travel at speeds capable of carrying out inter-galactic expeditions.

There are four possible types of civilisation measured in terms of being able to harness the powers required to make the leap to the next level. We are a Type 0 Civilisation which has found ways to extract resources from our planet and to generate power from these resources.

The greatest source of energy in our solar system is, of course, the sun and we at the moment harness about one millionth of the energy from the sun that reaches our planet. However, another one billion times that energy is dissipated from the sun in directions that do not hit our planet. One million billionths of the possible energy from the sun is all that we can manage at the moment.

For a species to be able to survive, it needs to be able to ensure that its planet survives and this means that not only ensuring that its actions do not lead to its destruction but that it can also gather enough energy to protect it from natural occurrences. We as a Type 0 Civilisation are still having difficulties with the smallest and most common of these after several hundred thousand years of development. Earthquakes, tsunamis, hurricanes, tornadoes and heavy rainfall are still huge challenges not to mention war, prejudice, malnutrition and disease.

It seems we have a long way to go, so imagine how far other life forms would have to develop in order to be able to come and visit us. And having come so far in their development why would they want to come and see us?

A Type I Civilisation would have no problem with the prevention of catastrophic meteor impacts, surviving or preventing ice ages and harnessing all the energy from their sun. This would have taken several times the already several hundred thousand years that we have been around. It seems unlikely that we are going to be able to reach the limits required for us to make the leap to the next level and we shall be wiped out only for it to have to start from scratch once again.

A Type I Civilisation having ensured its survival for so long might, if it has its priorities sorted out, now embark on greater things beyond its own solar system. It might now make the leap to a Type II Civilisation whereby it would now apply its skills to other solar systems in its galaxy, harnessing energy from other stars so that it might survive even greater challenges to its survival; the explosion of a star and the creation of a black hole.

Somewhere along the line here, it might just be possible that means of breaking the universal constants are discovered and traveling at the speed of light or even multiples is the new norm.

A Type III Civilisation would indeed be a formidable species.

An infinitely large universe would now present itself like an open road atlas.

And an infinitely small planet like ours would appear as a diminishing speck of dust. We don't do much to attract a lot of attention; we're not exactly lighting up the skies with our use of energy from our nearest sun let alone other nearby suns.

Such an advanced civilisation might have only one interest in a little planet like ours full of destructive, murdering troglodytes. It might decide, if it could be bothered to slow down on its way through our galaxy, to rescue our planet from its cruel inhabitants by wiping out the human race to ensure the survival of a planet that it might later use for the harvesting of food.

Beware of what you wish for.

*Misinterpretation of the Mesoamerican Long Count calendar is the basis for a popular belief that a cataclysm will take place on December 21, 2012. December 21, 2012 is simply the day that the calendar will go to the next b'ak'tun, at Long Count 13.0.0.0.0. The date on which the calendar will go to the next piktun (a complete series of 20 b'ak'tun) at Long Count 1.0.0.0.0.0, will be on October 13, 4772"

How to cure lower back ache

17th May 2012

The human spine is one of evolution's big mistakes. We were never meant to walk upright and as a result, a large proportion of people suffer from back pains of one sort or another. While we wait for evolution to catch up and solve the problem, there are a few things we can do to help ourselves.

Apart from injuries, one of the main causes of back pain is posture and an imbalance in our muscular development. Bad posture can cause upper back and neck problems. This is especially common in people who spend a lot of time in front of a computer, at a desk, or bent over a drawing board. Stringent health and safety measures in the workplace have helped to alleviate this, but some people still spend too much time sitting in one position and need to be strict with themselves when it comes to taking breaks, even if it is to just stand up.

The modern workplace is a very unnatural environment when we consider what our bodies are best developed to do; roaming around outside foraging and hunting for food.

People who are more active or have less sedentary jobs do not suffer so much from back problems.

Scandinavia is slightly more advanced than other western countries when it comes to treating its workforce humanely and many of their salary slaves have had their workplaces adapted to take into consideration our nature for moving around. Active workstations are becoming more common whereby desks and chairs can be easily adjusted at the touch of a button from a seating position to a standing position. Workers are advised to change their position regularly throughout the day.

Lower back problems are often associated with poor knee joints and are both possibly the result of an imbalance in the upper leg muscles. Over- or underdeveloped muscles in the thigh, known as the quadriceps, in comparison to the muscles in the back of the leg, known as the hamstrings, can add pressure to the knees and lower back. The stronger muscle pulls in an unbalanced manner on the joint, leading to pain. In order to overcome this problem, we need to tackle the weakness through exercise although some simple stretching exercises can provide immediate relief.

The exercises that target the hamstrings and the quadriceps are the deadlift and the squat but leg extensions and leg curls can also be used.

I have found that the absolutely best resource for fitness and exercising is exrx.net. All exercises are described in detail, outlining the target muscle as well as the muscles used as synergists and stabilisers with a video showing the exercise being performed.

Here you can see the full squat although it may be wise to start without any additional resistance and perhaps by not doing the complete movement.

And here you can see the deadlift which again to start with it may be better to do this without the added weight.

A few months of neglect and a number of weeks sleeping on a bed with no mattress when I first arrived in Finland, resulted in quite debilitating lower back pain. This was immediately cured by my first visit to the gym doing simple leg curls and extensions and leg raises which, while targeting the rectus abdominas, also uses the iliopsoas in the lower back as a synergist.

It is advisable to seek medical advice before embarking on an exercise programme but exercise is recommended over painkillers and can be quite surprisingly immediate in its effectiveness. You could start out by just doing squats followed by touching your toes while keeping your legs straight, say, ten times each with a rest between a total of three sets.

Super moon night expedition

17th May 2012

The sunken sun adds bright crimson highlights to the underbelly of the dark violet clouds of the evening sky. As it dips below the horizon it releases a final blood-red shaft which is replaced by an orange wash that sets the still leafless branches of the silver birch into sharp silhouette.

Sunset, 10.25pm, 10th May 2012

The snowplows were replaced by street sweepers whose steady slow progress left behind clear roads, collecting the grit to be used again next winter. The wind no longer blows up mini sandstorms and the cars are now free of the grey dust that made it impossible to read their rear number plates.

...

On a recent walk, my footsteps puffed up clouds of dust as I walked along the grassy verge of the country road. Once deep with snow, these verges are now deep green, washed clean by two days of rainfall.

The grass fields are now mostly green with just a few remaining patches of dead brown blades.

...

Perigee Moon, 3.00am, 7th May 2012

A night expedition to catch some shots of the Perigee Moon resulted in cold fingers and out of 150 exposures only a few good pictures not to mention a severe state of exhaustion the next day. Sometimes referred to as the Super Moon, this is when the celestial body is at its closest to earth and can appear to be up to 18% larger than normal.

Horizon looking north at 1.00am, 7th May 2012

With a small flexible tripod which I managed to balance on the saddle of my bicycle, I did, however, manage to take some interesting experimental photos (here) including this one of the horizon looking north at 1.00am. Using the delay function and keeping the aperture open for as long as possible I was able to take some interesting shots. I also added a few creative flairs by waving the camera around while the aperture was still open.





I feel now that a proper camera is in order; one that would allow me more freedom unlike the point-and-shoot digital camera I have at the moment.

I found a foldable 1950 Voigtländer Perkeo I in my local flea market that might do the trick. Worth from $90 for an average example to over $200 for one in mint condition, this one is 25 euro and looks pretty tidy to me.

People have the impression that all of Scandinavia is expensive - I have a feeling that Norway and Sweden may be more so than Finland but I shall find out for myself when I go to Sweden at the end of next month.

Kauhava and Ramsgate sunset, sunrise and twilight

17th May 20122

Living so far north for the first time, one of the most noticeable differences compared to where I have lived before is the length of day.

Below is a table showing the hours of daylight in my hometown Ramsgate, Kent, England, (Lat 51.3345, Long 1.4207), followed by the same information for Kauhava, Finland, (Lat 63.0998, Long 23.0565).

Civil Twilight, when the sun is less than 6 degrees below the horizon, is when it is still light enough to perform normal outdoor activities such as outdoor sports like tennis or football. This is followed by Nautical Twilight, when the sun is between 6 and 12 degrees below the horizon, and when an aeroplane must be equipped with the correct lights for flying. Astronomical Twilight is when the sun is between 12 and 18 degrees below the horizon and it is only when the sun is more than 18 degrees below the horizon that all astronomical observations can be made.

For Ramsgate I have highlighted in yellow the period from the earliest sunrise to the latest sunset. I have done the same in orange for Kauhava in Finland and highlighted in yellow the period of 24 hours of light including Civil Twilight; a total of 54 days.

CTS: Civil Twilight Start, SR: Sunrise, SS: Sunset, CTE: Civil Twilight End

Ramsgate, Kent, England, (Lat 51.3345, Long 1.4207)

May 2012                 Jun                      Jul
   CTS   SR    SS    CTE    CTS   SR    SS    CTE    CTS   SR    SS    CTE
 1 04:47 05:26 20:18 20:56  03:58 04:43 21:02 21:47  03:56 04:43 21:14 22:00
 2 04:45 05:24 20:20 20:58  03:57 04:42 21:03 21:48  03:57 04:43 21:13 22:00
 3 04:43 05:22 20:21 21:00  03:56 04:42 21:04 21:50  03:58 04:44 21:13 21:59
 4 04:41 05:20 20:23 21:02  03:55 04:41 21:05 21:51  03:59 04:45 21:12 21:59
 5 04:39 05:18 20:24 21:04  03:54 04:40 21:06 21:52  04:00 04:46 21:12 21:58
 6 04:37 05:17 20:26 21:05  03:54 04:40 21:07 21:53  04:01 04:47 21:11 21:57
 7 04:35 05:15 20:28 21:07  03:53 04:39 21:07 21:54  04:02 04:48 21:11 21:56
 8 04:33 05:13 20:29 21:09  03:53 04:39 21:08 21:55  04:03 04:49 21:10 21:55
 9 04:32 05:12 20:31 21:11  03:52 04:39 21:09 21:56  04:04 04:50 21:09 21:54
10 04:30 05:10 20:32 21:13  03:52 04:38 21:10 21:56  04:05 04:51 21:08 21:54
11 04:28 05:08 20:34 21:14  03:51 04:38 21:10 21:57  04:07 04:52 21:08 21:53
12 04:26 05:07 20:35 21:16  03:51 04:38 21:11 21:58  04:08 04:53 21:07 21:51
13 04:24 05:05 20:37 21:18  03:51 04:38 21:12 21:59  04:09 04:54 21:06 21:50
14 04:23 05:04 20:38 21:20  03:50 04:37 21:12 21:59  04:11 04:55 21:05 21:49
15 04:21 05:02 20:40 21:21  03:50 04:37 21:13 22:00  04:12 04:56 21:04 21:48
16 04:19 05:01 20:41 21:23  03:50 04:37 21:13 22:00  04:13 04:57 21:03 21:47
17 04:18 04:59 20:43 21:25  03:50 04:37 21:13 22:01  04:15 04:59 21:02 21:45
18 04:16 04:58 20:44 21:26  03:50 04:37 21:14 22:01  04:16 05:00 21:01 21:44
19 04:14 04:57 20:46 21:28  03:50 04:38 21:14 22:01  04:18 05:01 20:59 21:43
20 04:13 04:55 20:47 21:30  03:50 04:38 21:14 22:02  04:19 05:03 20:58 21:41
21 04:11 04:54 20:48 21:31  03:51 04:38 21:14 22:02  04:21 05:04 20:57 21:40
22 04:10 04:53 20:50 21:33  03:51 04:38 21:15 22:02  04:23 05:05 20:56 21:38
23 04:08 04:52 20:51 21:34  03:51 04:39 21:15 22:02  04:24 05:07 20:54 21:37
24 04:07 04:51 20:52 21:36  03:52 04:39 21:15 22:02  04:26 05:08 20:53 21:35
25 04:06 04:50 20:54 21:37  03:52 04:39 21:15 22:02  04:27 05:09 20:52 21:33
26 04:05 04:48 20:55 21:39  03:53 04:40 21:15 22:02  04:29 05:11 20:50 21:32
27 04:03 04:47 20:56 21:40  03:53 04:40 21:15 22:02  04:31 05:12 20:49 21:30
28 04:02 04:47 20:57 21:42  03:54 04:41 21:14 22:01  04:32 05:14 20:47 21:28
29 04:01 04:46 20:58 21:43  03:54 04:41 21:14 22:01  04:34 05:15 20:46 21:26
30 04:00 04:45 21:00 21:45  03:55 04:42 21:14 22:01  04:36 05:17 20:44 21:25
31 03:59 04:44 21:01 21:46                           04:38 05:18 20:42 21:23

Kauhava, Finland, (Lat 63.0998, Long 23.0565)

May 2012                 Jun                      Jul
   CTS   SR    SS    CTE    CTS   SR    SS    CTE    CTS   SR    SS    CTE
 1 04:02 05:06 21:45 22:50    DAY 03:40 23:13   DAY    DAY 03:29 23:33   DAY
 2 03:57 05:03 21:48 22:54    DAY 03:38 23:15   DAY    DAY 03:31 23:32   DAY
 3 03:53 05:00 21:51 22:58    DAY 03:36 23:17   DAY    DAY 03:33 23:31   DAY
 4 03:49 04:56 21:54 23:02    DAY 03:34 23:19   DAY    DAY 03:34 23:29   DAY
 5 03:44 04:53 21:57 23:07    DAY 03:32 23:21   DAY    DAY 03:36 23:28   DAY
 6 03:40 04:50 22:00 23:11    DAY 03:31 23:23   DAY    DAY 03:38 23:26   DAY
 7 03:35 04:47 22:03 23:15    DAY 03:29 23:25   DAY    DAY 03:40 23:24   DAY
 8 03:31 04:44 22:06 23:20    DAY 03:28 23:27   DAY    DAY 03:43 23:22   DAY
 9 03:26 04:41 22:09 23:25    DAY 03:26 23:29   DAY    DAY 03:45 23:20   DAY
10 03:21 04:38 22:12 23:29    DAY 03:25 23:30   DAY    DAY 03:47 23:18   DAY
11 03:17 04:35 22:15 23:34    DAY 03:24 23:32   DAY    DAY 03:49 23:16   DAY
12 03:12 04:32 22:18 23:39    DAY 03:23 23:33   DAY    DAY 03:52 23:14   DAY
13 03:07 04:29 22:21 23:44    DAY 03:22 23:34   DAY    DAY 03:54 23:12   DAY
14 03:02 04:26 22:24 23:49    DAY 03:21 23:35   DAY    DAY 03:57 23:09   DAY
15 02:56 04:23 22:27 23:55    DAY 03:21 23:36   DAY    DAY 03:59 23:07   DAY
16 02:51 04:20 22:30 00:00    DAY 03:20 23:37   DAY    DAY 04:02 23:05   DAY
17 02:45 04:17 22:33 00:06    DAY 03:20 23:38   DAY    DAY 04:05 23:02   DAY
18 02:39 04:14 22:35 00:13    DAY 03:20 23:38   DAY  01:52 04:07 22:59 01:07
19 02:33 04:12 22:38 00:19    DAY 03:20 23:39   DAY  02:07 04:10 22:57 00:55
20 02:26 04:09 22:41 00:27    DAY 03:20 23:39   DAY  02:18 04:13 22:54 00:46
21 02:18 04:06 22:44 00:35    DAY 03:20 23:39   DAY  02:27 04:15 22:52 00:38
22 02:10 04:03 22:47 00:44    DAY 03:20 23:39   DAY  02:34 04:18 22:49 00:31
23 02:00 04:01 22:50 00:56    DAY 03:21 23:39   DAY  02:41 04:21 22:46 00:24
24 01:46 03:58 22:52 01:17    DAY 03:21 23:39   DAY  02:48 04:24 22:43 00:18
25   DAY 03:56 22:55   DAY    DAY 03:22 23:39   DAY  02:54 04:27 22:40 00:12
26   DAY 03:53 22:58   DAY    DAY 03:23 23:38   DAY  03:00 04:30 22:38 00:06
27   DAY 03:51 23:00   DAY    DAY 03:24 23:37   DAY  03:05 04:32 22:35 00:01
28   DAY 03:49 23:03   DAY    DAY 03:25 23:36   DAY  03:10 04:35 22:32 23:55
29   DAY 03:46 23:05   DAY    DAY 03:27 23:36   DAY  03:16 04:38 22:29 23:50
30   DAY 03:44 23:08   DAY    DAY 03:28 23:35   DAY  03:21 04:41 22:26 23:45
31   DAY 03:42 23:10   DAY                           03:25 04:44 22:23 23:40