next message in archive
no next message in thread
previous message in archive
previous message in thread
Index of Subjects
Index of Subjects
Quoting Dusan Soudek <soudekd@ns.sympatico.ca>:
> I really question whether myopia "is the result of youthfully
> staying indoors and paying too close attention to books." That is
> not the generally accepted view. This condition has a huge genetic
> component. Nor is myopia caused by reading in low light, in spite of
> having been admonished by our parents and grandparents to turn on
> the light lest we "ruin our eyes."
* I'd always understood that myopia is promoted by focusing on
close-by objects, without alternating with distant objects of
attention, as the eye is growing, so the fellow saying this on Quirks
and Quarks -
http://www.randomhouse.com/book/206671/the-story-of-the-human-body-by-daniel-lieberman - was no novelty to me, and this is the "close work" and "visual stimuli" hypotheses of wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myopia#.E2.80.9CNear_work.E2.80.9D_or_.E2.80.9CClose_work.E2.80.9D_hypothesis - though this article seems to place less blame on these causes than Dr Lieberman did on
Q&Q.
I must say that his account of contemporary environmental dysfunction
didn't sound as novel to me as his publisher makes it out to be, so he
may have understated the genetic component in myopia - but maybe
nobody is sufficiently out-of-doors anymore to serve as a control.
> On the other hand, UV radiation, present in sunlight, is
> well-known as a cause of the most common type of cataracts.
* been there, done that - not nearly as myopic as I was now that I've
got plastic lenses.
cheers,
fred.
==========================================================
> -----Original Message----- From: Fred Schueler
> Sent: Wednesday, December 25, 2013 11:46 AM
> To: Eastern Ontario Natural History list-serve ;
> NATURENB@LISTSERV.UNB.CA ; naturens@chebucto.ns.ca
> Subject: [NatureNS] seasonal greetings
>
> Everyone,
>
> I was listening the the recent Quirks & Quarks piece on human
> maladaptation to certain aspects of modern environments, and when they
> came around the myopia that's the result of youthfully staying indoors
> and paying too close attention to books, and now to screens, I
> composed this for the grandson -
>
> Take the young boy out of doors.
> show him where the Raven soars.
> Teach him to look up in trees
> Where Cepaea takes its ease.
> He must find the Rock Elm's fruit
> in its floppy furry suit.
> Let him pick out treetop lichens
> as the foggy morning brightens;
> Tell the Cottontail from Hares
> When tracking snow is scarcely there;
> Nab the creaking Rachet Frog
> in the grass along the bog,
> Know the Great from Lesser Blackbacks
> On the Bay of Fundy mudflats,
> And where-so-ever he looks
> Study nature and write books.
>
> On the basis of experience with this young master of the English
> vocabulary, I'd also advise anyone who associates with toddlers to
> regularly speak to them in the languages of other species - the origin
> of the first couplet in the verse is that his favourite song is "Oh,
> to be a bright-sky Raven" sung in Raven, and he was very excited last
> week when we explained that the Chickadees would soon be singing
> 'feebee.' It's said that imitating other species was one an early
> Human apomorphies (supposedly to frighten off nocturnal African
> predators), which opened up the possibility of speech, and it's surely
> important not to restrict what's heard by youngsters to the limited
> phonemes of official languages.
>
> For those interested in excessive detail, our annual letter, or
> perhaps it's better styled a report to stockholders, is at
> http://pinicola.ca/documents/2013_annual.pdf
>
> Wishing everyone a rejuvenating and healthful Sunreturn - and hoping
> 2014 can be dominated, at all levels of enterprise, by actions based
> on conclusions lovingly reasoned out from first principles,
>
> fred.
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> Frederick W. Schueler & Aleta Karstad
> Bishops Mills Natural History Centre - http://pinicola.ca/bmnhc.htm
> Mudpuppy Night in Oxford Mills - http://pinicola.ca/mudpup1.htm
> Daily Paintings - http://karstaddailypaintings.blogspot.com/
> South Nation Basin Art & Science Book
> http://pinicola.ca/books/SNR_book.htm
> RR#2 Bishops Mills, Ontario, Canada K0G 1T0
> on the Smiths Falls Limestone Plain 44* 52'N 75* 42'W
> (613)258-3107 <bckcdb at istar.ca> http://pinicola.ca/
> ------------------------------------------------------------
>
>
------------------------------------------------------------
Frederick W. Schueler & Aleta Karstad
Bishops Mills Natural History Centre - http://pinicola.ca/bmnhc.htm
Mudpuppy Night in Oxford Mills - http://pinicola.ca/mudpup1.htm
Daily Paintings - http://karstaddailypaintings.blogspot.com/
South Nation Basin Art & Science Book
http://pinicola.ca/books/SNR_book.htm
RR#2 Bishops Mills, Ontario, Canada K0G 1T0
on the Smiths Falls Limestone Plain 44* 52'N 75* 42'W
(613)258-3107 <bckcdb at istar.ca> http://pinicola.ca/
------------------------------------------------------------
next message in archive
no next message in thread
previous message in archive
previous message in thread
Index of Subjects