BOC#005
3 MINUTE MUNCH
ISRAEL HAS BEEN IN THE NEWS A LOT LATELY…
…but what, or rather who, was Israel? According to the biblical narrative, the patriarch Jacob was camped by the Jabbok river one night, and while alone, was confronted by a strange man. He wrestled with the man until his hip was eventually broken with a single touch, but jacob refused to yield, and continued fighting until daybreak. The man demanded that Jacob let him go, but Jacob refused, demanding that he be blessed. (Genesis 32:24). The man then asked him his name, to which he replied “Jacob.” The man then informed him that his name would no longer be Jacob, but Israel, meaning ‘the one who struggled with God,’ for he had wrestled with God himself.
IN MACBETH, SHAKESPEARE APTLY DESCRIBES SLEEP AS…
…“the chief nourisher of life’s feast.” According to sleep expert Matthew Walker, routinely sleeping less than six or seven hours a night demolishes your immune system, more than doubling your risk of cancer. The World Health Organisation’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) has classified shift work as a ‘probable carcinogen’ due to low levels of melatonin identified in shift workers. Learn More.
The causal link between substandard sleep and Alzheimer’s disease has also been well documented, and is caused by a build of plaquing protein, Amyloid Beta, in the brain. While this protein is ordinarily flushed by the glymphatic system during sleep, a build up is known to be pathogenic. Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan both boasted of sleeping only 4-5 hours a night, and both sadly developed Alzheimer’s.
WHY ARE SO MANY PLACES CALLED GUINEA?
Guinea, Equatorial Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Papua New Guinea, Gulf of Guinea etc. While there is disagreement on the etymology of the word Guinea (likely a reference to a demographic), it has been used to describe many a place. In the 15th Century, Portuguese sailors used it to describe the area near Senegal (Guinee), and by the 18th Century, Europeans were using it to refer to the west African coast more broadly. As Africa was carved up by the colonial powers, each nation had its own ‘Guinea’. By the time independence came about, Spanish Guinea had become Equatorial Guinea, French Guinea became known as Guinea, and the Portuguese region had become Guinea-Bissau. Papua New Guinea off the coast of Australia was named so by Spanish explorer Ynigo Ortiz De Retez in 1545 due to the resemblance of its people to the ‘Guineans’ of West Africa.
BOOK PASSAGE FROM BIRDSONG BY SEBASTIAN FAULKS…
“The function of music is to liberate in the soul those feelings that normally we keep locked up in the heart.”
WHEN YOU GET OUT OF BED IN THE MORNING…
…sit on the edge of your bed for one minute. This helps to reduce Postural Hypertension, that dizzy, blurry eyed feeling you experience when you get up too quickly. It’s caused by a drop in blood pressure which may be caused by dehydration, heart conditions, or hormone problems. - NHS.
“YOU MUST BE WILLING TO…
…do the things today that others won’t do, in order to have the things tomorrow that others won’t have.” - Les Brown.
WORD OF THE WEEK: BUCOLIC
A general state of being with reference to the countryside. Someone might be said to have left the urban rat race in favour of a more bucolic life in the countryside.
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