My Curriculum Vitae

Lovely quotes I just found, hihihi.

Procrastination is the art of keeping up with yesterday.
- Don Marquis

I am free of all prejudices. I hate every one equally.
- W. C. Fields

I found there was only one way to look thin, hang out with fat people.
- Rodney Dangerfield

Older people shouldn't eat health food, they need all the preservatives they can get.
- Robert Orben

The University of Liverpool had offered me an unconditional offer for medicine a month ago for the Autumn. However, a few weeks ago they amended the offer, and now they demand that I sit the IELTS and get a certain score in order to obtain my offer. Fuck. If that were to be the case, they could have given me a conditional offer so I had known in the first place. The IELTS stands for International English Language Test Something, and as the name rather clearly suggets, it is an English exam. This is the last obstacle I have to cross before being able to commence med-school.

I am quite chill about this exam, seeing that English has never been a problem for me, and I am rather confident that my English is more than good enough to get the mininum score the University demands. Sometimes when I start thinking too much though, I get shit terrified that I won't get a high enough score for some bizarre reason. And if that were the case, then I would die, because if ultimately an English score were to be the reason I will not be able to embark my vocational dream, it would be a big fat evil malevolent JOKE.

Yesterday, I was on the phone with my grandparents. First my grandma spoke to me, congratulating me, then saying that English is no problem for me, that they are all very sure that I will get a good score. Five minutes later, my granddad told me the exact same thing. That made me terrified again, because if I don't get the needed score, I would rather commit suicide than disappoint my relatives that have so high hopes for me. Well, I might have already committed suicide before that suicide due to my own disappointment.

Anyway, suicides aside, I am so effing close to my dream. For two years I've been ploughing through applications, exams and interviews for this offer. A dumb-assed English exam is not going to stand in my way. I will get this offer.

Today, I have been an extraordinarily happy and content little girl, because my prince has come back after a loooong trip to Hong Kong. It has been an absolutely fantastic day, and I wish all my days could be so nice, especially the part where he is there to cook me more edible food than I cook for myself without me needing to lift so much as a finger!

An hour ago he went to bed, because of the time zone lag thingy. Now I am trying to be quiet and not make a hell lot of unnecessary noise, which I am failing quite horribly at, as my mum and my friend just called me on my phone. I'm trying to convince myself that since he is so tired, he'll sleep through whatever noise I make!

Earlier this afternoon, we went for a walk in the sunshine (which turned into rain all of a sudden...!). The park that we walked past is called Holland Park where there are quite a few peacocks. It's the lovely mating season now, and all of the birds seem quite desperate to execute their designated reproductive task. It's really quite hilarious to watch the male birds pecking and chasing after the females without any response but annoyance from the females. There was a male peacock at the park, and he was so effing desperate for this specific female's attention, that he displayed his tail feather entirely. Every human being there awed at the beauty and colours of the tail, but sadly, the female peacock gave no notice of him. If he had mistaken me for a female peacock and shaken his tail feathers at me, I would even have forgiven him, because he was just so magnificent:


Look, I also drew this lovely "Welcome back" sign. Isn't my concept brilliant? :P London Underground sign into a heart = welcome back to London, my prince!

Recently, I've been having some bad days. Actually "bad days" is not really the correct term, because my days are not bad. In fact, they are good days, but with phases of bad periods. I can't complain about my days, they've been sunny and beautiful, and everyday I walk in the sunshine and feel so damn lucky and happy. Lately, it's made me wonder if all this this sunshine is a dream, because how is it freaking possible for the UK to be sunny day after day for over 2 weeks? Too effing good to be true!

Anyway, back to the original topic I was going to write about. Flowers is one thing there is an adunbance of in London, this place is flooded with flowers of all colors, shapes and sorts. The notion that flowers are pretty is something we all acquire when we're small and curious, but I've never actually paid much attention to flowers until this past week, because they've literally been in my face in the parks here.

If you look at them for a long time, you realize a lot of things about them. Their colour, their petal shape and pattern, the yucky insects that dwell within the petals, and how each flower despite being from the same plant are similar but never identical. The most striking quality in my opinion, apart from the colour, is the overall pattern that the petals form. So god damn beautiful and perfect. This one, for instance, is kind of star-shaped:


Whereas this one is a little messier with all that waviness going on the the middle:


These are much simpler, but the way the white is dyed with purple vessels is just magnificent:


I don't know why I've never noticed or appreciated flowers, or spring in general, as much as now. Perhaps I have more time to actually wander around, combined with the sunny weather. Either way, flowers is the shit man! I'm going to have ice-cream with a friend later today in the sunshine, YUM! Can't wait to sink my teeth into that smooth, creamy, cold texture, heehee.

The most exciting, challenging, and significant relationship of all is the one you have with yourself. And if you can find someone to love the you you love, well, that's just fabulous.

Happiness makes up in height for what it lacks in length.

Happiness is not having what you want. It is wanting what you have.

Hehehe, and this one is good:
Love is the answer, but while you're waiting for the answer, sex raises some pretty interesting questions.
- Woody Allen

P.S. I have one question: if dog owners are responsible for cleaning up their dogs' poops, then shouldn't horse riders be responsible for picking up their horses' shit? The parks here are mostly dog poo free, but there is an effing big amount of horse poo scattered throughout the grass. What the heck!

London has been practically entirely sunny for more than 2 weeks. No, that was not a joke. I can't believe it either, and I am so god damn pleased and grateful. It's like someone has cast an eternal sun spell over London. I love that someone to death!

All this sun and magic has driven me to parks and green areas every single day. These areas are occupied by children running around screaming like mad, mothers with push-chairs, joggers jogging their muscular asses off, and a significant amount of lovers strolling around aimlessly hand in hand. I snapped a few shots of these people illegally.








I hope hope hope this sun spell stays for another 20000 weeks!

Yeah, yet another one regarding happiness. Because I think I have figured out the ultimate answer in life. Ok, that was a bold statement. Or at least I have figured out the answer that applies to myself. During the past few months, I have acquired knowledge of what happiness is to me. Happiness is not as complicated as people generally make it out to be.

There is a wise quote that leads Happiness is not a destination, it is a method of life. I cannot agree more with this statement. If we want to acquire permanent happiness (or as permanent and non-intermittant as possible, as I doubt anyone can ever feel permanently happy - then that person would not know what happy truly feels like, would he/she?), then we cannot perceive happiness as merely a destination. This is because, when we set a certain goal as a destination, the path towards it is always interrupted by obstacles and unexpected surprises. For instance, one of my goals set two years ago was to get into med-school, but this path has proved to be everything but hinder-free. The same thing applies to setting happiness as a destination.

So, if we strive to make happiness a method of living, instead of seeing obstacles as interruptions to happiness, they then simply become phases of life which we try to live happily through. This is a big difference - as the difference shapes the foundation of our thoughts regarding happiness. I think the former destination way tends to make us more prone to feeling bitter about life and its events. The latter way, in contrast, provides us with an incentive to try to be happy.

Also, the ultimate purpose and goal of life should not be happiness, it should be to try to live happily every single day. That is the biggest challenge.



P.S. To you guys that are trapped due to the volcano ash thingy, try to not worry too much! Everything will be alright and sorted in the end! BF is meant to fly back next Monday, so I hope just as much as you guys that the ash gets its fat ass out of the way. NOW.

I was looking through some photos and thought I could post some more Edinburgh photos as I really haven't shown much of the city with the few photos I uploaded last time. As mentioned previously, it's a city with a lot of old style buildings and it's quite charming. However, I don't like the fact that all the buildings are constructed of the same material: greyish stone (which would practically match the sky on a veeery rainy day). But the architecture, on the other hand, is magnificent:


Edinburgh Castle from afar:


This Latin inscription at the entrace of the Castle translates to something like "No one safely provokes me" in English. Macho.


We also visited the National Museum of Scotland, and saw some interesting items and objects in there. For instance, I saw an execution machine thingy that cuts heads that I wanted. Quite a nice ornament to display in the living room.


And the next object is something that people used to put around the necks of their dead family members' bodies in the coffin. Edinburgh was apprently quite successful in the medical field, so instituions were in great need of dead bodies for academic purposes, and thus a black market of cadavers bloomed. Some people started digging in graves to retrieve a dead body that they could sell. So to stop theives from stealing bodies from their coffins, it was very common to put this lovely necklace around your deceased mother or father or whoever to ensure theives would be unable to remove the body:


My sister captured this hot shot of men in kilts:


I just HAVE to upload this photo of me in front of a JK Rowling cafe!!!


Last but not least, MY (I wish) Ferrari (as the colour of my jacket completely matches the colour of the Ferrari, I think I should be its rightful owner :D)

I haven't written one of these for ages, but today I encountered someone who totally deserves to be mentioned: Johnny! Johnny "helps with assembling, small DIY jobs, general hand, tip runs, light removals, courier, car hire & maintenance services" - what would his job title be? Handyman? Guy-who-fixes-everything-that-you-don't-want-to?

Anyway, a few days ago, the kitchen light suddenly stopped working, and of course my first instinct was to change the bulbs. But it turns out that it wasn't the bulbs' problems. I procrastinated calling anyone for help, but eventually I decided that I actually want some light while I cook. So I called Johnny, someone who had distributed a leaflet with that job description above and his contact details. He came around this evening, and he disassembled the light and switch, and after some mumbling to himself and fumbling around, he concluded it was the switch that was broken, the light was fine.

After assembling everything again, he took me through where to get a new switch, and how to install it, and some safety precautions. Apprently, if I touch the wires in the switch hole, it's quite lethal, so he helped me tape that hole up. And he was kind enough to inform me that if the two wires in the hole touch each other, it will blow up. Quite daunting. Then while he was leaving, I needed to pay him. On the phone he said he charges 25 pounds an hour. I gave him two 20 notes as I had no change, but he only took one note. I insisted on giving him 25, but he said I should keep one 20 to get the switch, hehe. As he walked out the door, he turned around and said that if I had any problems installing the switch, I can call him. Or if I have any other questions, I shouldn't hesitate to call him anytime, and also to let him know how I get on with that switch (maybe he just wants to make sure I don't get electrified or blown up into pieces). Five minutes after he left, the phone rang. It was Johnny, who told me to try the new swtich after attaching the wires before I screw it to the wall again, so that in case it doesn't work, I don't have to unscrew it from the wall - save me effort.

He totally made my day, putting so much effort into helping me with a stupid kitchen light. He did much more than his job entitled. I wish everyone would do that - to not only do what you're supposed to, but to take an extra step.

P.S. Regarding the Our future post, I told the BF I had a new pet suggestion. I want to have a baby kangaroo instead of one of our planned dogs. He is still hesitating and is a bit concerned that it is against the law. However, it is actually legal to have a kangaroo if you get the Australian Government's consent or something! They are freaking irresistable, look: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFEB1VyvZEA

Today, when I was on the phone with the BF, we started musing about how things in life happen quite unexpectedly. There was a bunch of "A year ago, did you ever imagine this and that happening??" In retrospect, the past two years of my life have been the most eventful years. Everything has been pretty unpredictable and I've never felt so free and independent before. From au pairing in Nottingham, to moving to London, to living with the BF, to volunteering, to working - nearly every experience has been new and exciting. I didn't put much thought behind these decisions, I just did whatever I wanted to do. Want to get away from Sweden? Well, just go au pairing in another country. Want to live in awesome London? Want to be with BF in London? Well, just freaking move there! That was how my mind reasoned in these situations. The only thing I took seriously and continuously put a lot of thought into was med-school and all the pain in the ass application exams and procedures.

I've been very happy during these spontaneous years. I love the unpredictableness, the adventures, the freedom, the weightlessness. I don't ever want to give any of these up. I am aware that I have to though. I know that starting med-school will tie me down for years and years. I know that being increasingly committed to the BF will tie me down too. I think I can live with those weights. But, I cannot bare the additional weights of children. A child would make it formidable, almost impossible to be as spontaneous as I would like to. It would eliminate that freedom of being able to make spur of the moment decisions.

When I took care of two kids in Nottingham for a family, I experienced partly what it's like to have kids, and I witnessed the immense amount of commitment, responsibility, time and effort the parents put into taking care of the kids. They were so tired everyday, complained that they never had time for anything else but kids and work. They were so tied down to their lives, and everyday seemed to be the same. Day in day out. They were admirable, parents are admirable, that's undeniable. Call me selfish and unadmirable or whatever, but I don't think I could ever live so tied down. I would feel so damn suffocated. I don't want a family with a husband and wonderful children and run a household as a housewife. I want freedom, time, and energy to live. If anyone has read The Hours by Michael Cunningham, I think I would be like the character Laura Brown and end up abandoning my family, and running away from it all. And that would just make me a horrible mother and wife.

Maybe I'll think differently in a few years when my biological clock starts ticking like mad, maybe I'll be desperate for offspring. But until then: no. kids. ever.

Lately, I've been reading a book called Not on the Label - What Really Goes into the Food on your Plate written by a Felicity Lawrence. Lawrence is a Londoner, who works as a journalist and editor and writes about food related topics and issues. This book was published in 2004, quite a few years ago, but it's definitely a book worth reading. The book, as the title rather clearly suggests, is about food that we purchase at the supermarket, and all the issues that revolve around that food. So it's not only about manufaturers loading their products with E-something substances and other unhealthy stuff, but also about issues such as migrant workers, environmental effects, farmers, public health diseases etc. She manages to touch upon all those topics by writing about only 9 common products that we all buy: chicken, salad, bread, beans, apples, bananas, coffee, prawns, and the ready meal.

I've only read the bread and apples chapters, and half of the salad and bananas ones, and it's already been enough to change the way I buy products. Yesterday, I went to the Whole Foods Market where they primarily sell organic things and guarantees farmers and workers a fair price rather than my local supermarket. This book is quite revolutionizing. It's not that people don't know about these issues, but I think people don't want to know about them, but once you read this book, it really makes you think twice about buying whose products and where.

I want to write a few things regarding the apple chapter. In this chapter, Lawrence goes around to orchards and to talk to farmers, workers, supermarket managers, etc. She meets multiple farmers who's had to close their apple businesses because they were suffering from too much losses. She focuses on the supermarket chains in the UK, e.g. Tesco, Asda, Morrisons, Sainsbury's etc., but her findings are applicable to most supermarkets in the world, because this is really becoming a global crisis.

In the UK, supermarkets are increasingly importing and buying their apples abroad rather than locally, even when it is the British season for apple harvesting. Countries with more suitable climates and less expensive labour have been able to offer supermarket chains cheaper apples than their local British farmers. However, this means that the cheaper apples' labourers can barely survive on that minimum price, and also caused a great number of British farmers to become unable to keep up with the competition and put down their orchards and farms altogether. Because the 4-5 main chain supermarkets control 75% of the entire grocery market in the UK, complaining farmers get delisted from being these chains' providers, and thus many farmers are afraid to speak out.

Also, there is a so-called "beauty parade" of not just apples, but all grocery products. A supermarket product must look appealing in front of a camera or it may be rejected by the supermarket. There are machines that cost hundreds of thousands of pounds to install and operate for a factory, that measures the cosmetic appearance of these products. For instance, it measures the degree of blush of an apple by taking up to 70 photos of every single effing apple that passes it. If a supermarket has ordered to only take apples of 20% blush of red, then an apple of 19.5% would be detected and subsequently rejected. This causes an extremely great amount of products to be rejected and go to waste, and causes large sums of losses for farmers.

To keep up with these beauty standards, many farmers have to turn to chemical substances to fertilize and feed their trees and plants, because size is also a reason for rejection. Brussel sprouts are grouped into two sizes by supermarkets, either 25-30mm or 30-35mm in diameter. A carrot grower also told Lawrence that for every 30 tonnes of carrots harvested, only 10 tonnes are actually used and bought by the supermarkets. Any carrot that is not entirely straight, that is a few degrees bent, get rejected. Also, because of these cosmetic standards, organic farms have a freaking hard time keeping up. They cannot resort to using chemical substances to beautify their products, so even more of their products go to waste.

This ridiculous beauty parade. I understand that buyers want products that look nice and fresh, but knowing this, from now on, I will not give a damn that my carrot is bent like a horse shoe, or that my potato has an ugly dent in its surface. Fuck blushes and supermarkets.

I can't express how grateful I am of the absolutely wonderful weather London has been displaying the past few days. It hasn't been flawlessly sunny, but it's been warm and adequately sunny, and I actually feel that SPRING HAS ARRIVED! The flowers are in beautiful full bloom, and the tree buds have come out. Occasionally I spot trees that already have small baby leaves - their colours are so refreshingly green! I can't convey all the beautiful sights and feelings with words, so here are some photos to help me describe the current divineness of spring in London:

At our young age, fesh out of school, we have this colossal energy within us. We believe we are able to accomplish anything in the world. We feel like we possess limitless opportunities in life. With determination and some hard work, our dreams will come true. We anticipate a bright future, and declare to the world that it should prepare itself for our dramatic entrance and subsequent massive impact upon it. We dare to take risks, and despite all our wise(er) parents' warnings about our future, we don't care and won't listen, we go ahead with our risky business - the riskier the better. We are curious, we want to see, smell, touch, experience things, travel the world, meet inspiring people.

I don't know what word to use to summarise all these feelings and beliefs - I guess it's some sort of confidence+anticipation-feeling? So this confidence+anticipation-feeling, does it subside as we grow older? Is that the reason why our parents are considered wiser than us? They used to think this way when they were our age, but then reality hit them, and they realised that life doesn't always go as planned? That there are numerous setbacks; that sometimes, no matter how hard they try, they can't accomplish their dreams; that they have responsibilities and duties in life?

So is that ultimately what growing up means then - to be more realistic and careful? Does the confidence-feeling subside as well? I'm not really sure what I'm musing about really. I guess I just found another reason, besides getting wrinkly and slow and more disease-prone, to dread growing old. I want to feel young and energetic and almighty forever!

Today I went out for ice-cream in the warm (but not very sunny) weather with a friend. I took her to the Italian place I got ice-cream with the BF a few weeks ago. Last time, he and I ate our ice-creams inside while it was pouring outside, and I vowed I would have ice-cream in the sun one day. I half-fulfiled my promise this time, although the sunshine was a bit hazy, and no bright blue sky was visible. So, this means I have an excuse to go back to that place and get ice-cream again when there is no cloud at all and the sun is shining like mad!

Anyway, this post wasn't supposed to be about ice-cream at all. Today, my friend asked me a really simple question: to describe myself with 3 adjectives. However, I found it really difficult to think of 3! The only one I thought of, which she totally agreed with, was weird. Even after we parted, I continued to contemplate. I mean there are a lot of adjectives that I could use to describe myself, like funny, nice, or whatever, but those feel so unpersonal, and are applicable to most people. They are not spot-on Yiteng attributes.

I've been thinking about stubborn and prideful. Maybe determined as well. I don't know. I have to keep on thinking. It's funny how it's so hard to describe oneself with a mere 3 adjectives, isn't it? Try it yourselves!

Promise yourself to live your life as a revolution and not just a process of evolution.
-Anthony J. D'Angelo

Happiness makes up in height for what it lacks in length.

I hope life isn't a big joke, because I don't get it.

And this one below is one of my new favourite quotes (it justifies why I am always late!):
Punctuality is the virtue of the bored.

The other day I came across an audio photography slideshow called Loving and living with Alzheimer's by an American photographer and writer called Judith Fox. Her husband, Dr Ed Ackell was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease 12 years ago. The photographs were on exhibition in London a few days ago, but they are also available online on BBS's website now. Do take a look here, it's called I Still Do and it's a sad narration of living with someone with Alzheimer's.

I haven't really given dementia-related diseases much thought and devoted much interest into them previously. However, maybe they are worth looking into and gaining an understanding of, not only because they are such horrible diseases, but they are also on the rise. In many countries, the number of people living with dementia are expected to double in the next few decades. Therefore, it is predicted to be a massive health care issue globally, especially for our generation, because our lifespans are just increasing (age is a big risk factor), and dementia type diseases really require a lot of resources.

Dementia is a broad term for a group of diseases, and the word literally means "deprived of mind". There are different types of dementia, where Alzheimer's disease (AD) - the most commonly heard one - is one. There is also vascular dementia, dementia with Lewy bodies, and Frontotemporal dementia etc. Because these diseases do not cause specific symptoms due to the varying location of the brain it occurs at and the progression of decline, it makes detecting and diagnosing these diseases quite difficult, and may take months. Usually the patient him or herself will not notice any differences, especially in the early stages, but family members and relatives might notice behavioural and other cognitive changes.

Dementia must be one of the most horrible conditions to get, especially the types that gradually get more severe and worse over periods of many years. I really hope I don't die of dementia. It would not only be a slow and painful death for myself, but an even more painful torture for my family and relatives. They would need to take care of me, and at the same time watch me get more and more severe, and eventually become someone they don't recognise anymore at all (what if I don't even like Harry Potter anymore?!). Likewise, I would not wish for anyone I know to die of dementia either, it would be so painful to watch. The creator of the photography slideshow's husband used to be a doctor and perform surgeries, imagine watching him have to give that up. Urgh.

So guys, take care of your brains! Apparently diet plays a role in the causation of these types of diseases, so feed your brains with nutritious stuff, and play memory games to keep your brains in shape!

As mentioned previously, I spent my Easter weekend up in Edinburgh, Scotland with my lovely sister! It was a lot of fun and adventure! I don't really know where to start, there's so much to write about! Ok, let me start with the most important event: I stepped foot AND ate in two cafes where JK Rowling wrote parts of the Harry Potter books!! I was in the same premises as her, saw the same things and might have even sat on the same chair she did! Maybe my trousers even have particles from her trousers! Maybe we even ordered to eat the same thing! There was one cafe called Black Medicine Co., and it had a really cool interior design. If the design was the same several years ago when Rowling sat there, I can really see how the cafe might have inspired her writing, because its interior gives a sense of mystery. The second cafe was called The Elephant and the House or something similar. It has windows that overlook Edinburgh Castle and a graveyard, which could have inspired some of her graveyard Voldemort scenes! Below is a photo of a statue in the Black Medicine Co. cafe, pretty mysterious and cool!


I'm pretending to be JK Rowling, heehee! I don't think you can see, but the tables and chairs and the entire theme of the cafe is very loggy and foresty (the chairs were rather uncomfortable though, quite impressed that Rowling managed to sit on those for extended hours).


Edinburgh is a really nice city. Even though it's a major city, it's not massive in size, and it's a walking city. The architecture is very beautiful and very old-day style - you could totally believe you are walking in a town in the 19th century or something if you removed all the cars from the streets. One very bad thing about Edinburgh though is that dogs in Edinburgh have no manners (or their homo sapien owners are very bad potty trainers), because there is a lot of dog shit scattered throughout the pavements. My pure WHITE sneakers were like 5cms away from a pile of shit multiple times, and I am eternally grateful that my sneakers did not get smudged in brown crap, especially because my poor sister stepped into a pile. It wasn't just a normal pile of poo, it was like one of those newly pooed diarrhea looking poo. Long story short: she threw her poop shoes and bought a new pair.

We went up to Edinburgh Castle, strolled through the ancient-looking streets among all the lovely cafes, encountered numerous men in kilts musing about whether they were wearing any underwear under the kilt (traditionally you're not suppoed to wear underwear it), enjoyed the beautiful scenary mixture of snow-capped mountain tops, seashores and white clouds against a jet blue sky. Speaking of a blue sky, on Friday when I left for Edinburgh, BBC reported that it would rain both Saturday and Sunday. BBC tends to be rather inaccurate regarding the weather, I mean it is rather common to expect sunny intervals because you foolishly believe BBC will be right, and then get big heavy showers. This time, I hoped reeeeally hard that BBC would be wrong, and I was so happy when they were! Both days we had quite a lot of sunshine, and a little bareable amount of rain. Oh, and another peculiar thing happened. It had just rained, and then the sun came out from behind the clouds again, and it was really sunny. Then suddenly when I looked at a few specks of cloud in the sky, the clouds were rainbow coloured. I don't really know if the rainbow was reflected on the clouds' surfaces or something, but it was sooo beautiful, I had never seen that phenomenon before:


Below are just some random photos of 1)Edinburgh Castle, 2)a scenary view from Edinburgh Castle of the city and snowy mountain, 3)me peeking curiously into a canon head on the Castle yard discovering that it is used as a candy wrapper disposal by tourists, and 4)in the foreground a part of a palace where the Queen stays when she goes to Edinburgh, and in the background a moutain we were supposed to climb on our very last morning before leaving Edinburgh, but never did because it was raining.






I intend on coming back to Edinburgh to seek out more JK Rowling cafes and to climb that mountain above. In the mean time, I hope the Scottish Parliament does something about the god damn dog poo piles soiling the pavements.

That was the headline of one of BBC's health articles this morning. The article was about a small study conducted by Massachusetts Institute of Technology. They used magnetic pulses which blocked cell activity in a region of the brain located a little bit above and behind the right ear. This apparently modified the volunteers' morality.

The research team pinpointed the region, especially a region called the right temporo-parietal juntion (RTPJ), a group of nerve cells considered to be the key area. By using a special technique they caused weak electric currents that (temporarily) ceased normal brain cell activity in that area. In one test, the volunteers were subjected to these pulses for 25 minutes, and were then asked to read stories. These stories contained characters that were morally questionable, and then the volunteers' were asked to judge the actions of these characters.

In the second test, the volunteers were only exposed to 500 millisecond of these electric pulses during which they were asked to make a moral judgement. One question they received was whether a man who let his girlfriend walk across a bridge he knew to be unsafe was acceptable. Their general consensus was that if the girlfriend walked across the bridge unfarmed, then the boyfriend did not do anything wrong.

Based on the result of both tests, the conclusion drawn by the research team was that when the RTPJ was affected, the volunteers were more likely to judge actions only on the basis of whether they caused harm, not if they were morally wrong in itself. What is also interesting is that apprently the RTPJ is very late in developing, it keeps on developing even a little beyond the 20s.

I think this is really fascinating research! We know soooo effing little about the brain, and something like this is like almost revolutionary, especially because this is about higher functions. I hope they keep on researching this RTPJ area, and understand more about how it functions and also how it develops. On the other hand, it's also quite scary that morality can be modified just like that!

P.S. I'm going to Edinburgh today! My sister is flying from Stockholm and then we're meeting up in Edinburgh and will spend the next three days there holidaying. BBC reports that the weather will be rainy and only a few degrees warm, but since BBC is almost always wrong weather-wise, I am hoping that they are wrong this time!

This morning has been the first nice sunny morning in a looong while! So I seized the chance and went for a walk in Hyde Park. Spring is definitely on its way, just look at the flowers below! Snow is forbidden, if snow falls again, I will rage at the sky!


This one is cool, because it kind of looks like a few big blood vessels branching off into a million smaller capillaries. It's so beautiful, like an organ!


Ok, in the centre of the red ring is a squirrel. I was so awed, I've never seen a squirrel THAT high up on a tree! I mean all I've seen them do is run for their lives scared to death when they see me, being fed by people with bread, and running up and down small tree trunks. I've never encountered such a hardcore one that climbed 20 meters up a tree! Maybe it was sun-bathing, enjoying the sun and scenary.


When I got home today, I embarked on a project. Because it's impossible for me to sleep when it gets light outside, and these days it gets light outside sooo freaking early, that the past week, I stuffed a dark towel between the window and wall like a (very ugly) curtain. Today I couldn't stand the ugliness anymore, so I got some black cardboard paper, and wrapped it up in plastic wrapping. The best thing is that the plastic makes the cardboard stick automatically to the window thanks to static electricity. So now I have a slightly more aestheically pleasing curtain (although it does remind me a little bit of what people did during World War II to avoid bombs at their houses):


Today is the 1st of April. I haven't gotten fooled yet, thank god. Well, ok, maybe in the morning everyone got fooled by god or whatever: I woke up to a beautiful, sunny day, and it was sunny and blue sky all the way until one o'clock, when it all of a sudden started showering and thundering like mad. Not fun.