Vitruvian Musings

On Communication

One takes for granted how little we really communicate. In the cacophony of noise in our heads, the billions of thoughts that whiz around, like particles in Brownian motion over the course of the day, it makes sense to struggle to understand how *insert acquaintance here* may misinterpret your wishes, personality or any given message.

Question: What is the ratio of words thought to words said?

Some neuro-psychiatrist somewhere should do a study on this. Because if one was to decrease the ratio of words thought per day to words said per day from say 234000000000:17 to 23400000000:500 things may start to click.

Factors which i think stand in the way of thoughts being converted to words are:

1. Ego

2. Ego

3. Language

4. Pain

5. Ego

6. Strict teachers

7. Guilt… in other words Ego

5 months ago -

1

doctorswithoutborders:

Photo: Bruno weighing babies at the Malhangalene Health Centre. Maputo, Mozambique 2012. © Andre Francois

Follow MSF on Instagram

5 months ago -

324

rustybreak:

Emilie Petoiset

5 months ago -

204

A Girl Dying from Leukaemia Saved Using Altered T-Cells

medicalstate:

Now this is very impressive.

Last summer, Emma, then six was near death from chemo-resistant leukaemia but is now in remission thanks to an experimental cancer treatment method developed by the University of Pennsylvania.

Doctors remove millions of Emma’s T-cells, and inserted new genes that enabled them to combat cancer cells. The kicker is that it involved using disabled HIV virions to deliver the genetic material. HIV particles are excellent genetic vectors and already have specificity towards T-cells. The new genes program the T-cells to attack B-cells.

The treatment very nearly killed her but she has emerged cancer free and still in complete remission.

This is very exciting stuff but make no mistake this is no end-all-be-all. Emma might have done extremely well with her treatment but the experiment has had its share of mixed results. Despite this, the researchers involved and the experts of the field think this approach has tremendous promise.

5 months ago -

317

seawaters:

“The Annunciation” by Henry Ossawa Tanner

Tanner painted The Annunciation soon after returning to Paris from a trip to Egypt and Palestine in 1897. The son of a minister in the African Methodist Episcopal Church, Tanner specialized in religious subjects, and wanted to experience the people, culture, architecture, and light of the Holy Land. Influenced by what he saw, Tanner created an unconventional image of the moment when the angel Gabriel announces to Mary that she will bear the Son of God. Mary is shown as an adolescent dressed in rumpled Middle Eastern peasant clothing, without a halo or other holy attributes. Gabriel appears only as a shaft of light.

(via caravaggista)

5 months ago -

130

pkam:

oh me oh my

5 months ago -

7380

From mono to magnificent

Voyeuristic may seem like a bi-product of this post but i have to say how fascinating are the infinite number of cases of wonderful, awe-inspiring, groundbreaking, beautiful creations and breakthroughs made by those that have suffered difficult pasts or painful debilitating diseases. The body and mind find strength in pain. Since when does having a comfortable functional childhood make for the capturing of millions of hearts? Well it certainly doesn’t have the same ring to it.

If our pain receptors could play a symphony, Justin Vernon’s “To Emma, Forever Ago” album for Bon Iver would be it. “The Wolves I and II”, “re:Stacks”, “flume” are some moving highlights which tickle the soul. Something is shifted inside.

The album was written on a 3 month retreat into the cold forest of Wisconsin after heartbreak and contracting the liver affecting mononucleosis caused by the Epstein Barr Virus. Using some old equipment and a load of sorrow a beauty was born.

Suggestion: listen to it for the first time alone, volume pumped up and with good earphones.

2 years ago

Gets on our nerves

“In a beautiful gesture to the fact that music can stimulate the body unlike anything else, the advertising design agency Euro RSCG, Zürich, Switzerland has created this ad campaign for Zürich Chamber Orchestra.”

3 years ago -

6

Thumbs up!

3 years ago -

1

3 years ago -

11

Will you break my heart?

3 years ago -

3703

chinese diagram of the brain

3 years ago