Cybernetics. The merging of brain capacity with electronics.
Brij Lunine
Santa Cruz | Lecturer

A tax of one cent per ounce of soda has been proposed to generate revenue and curb over consumption of the sugary staple beverage. Also, many schools across the country are currently restricting or banning the sale of sodas in vending machines on their campuses. According to the California Center for Public Health Advocacy, a 20-ounce serving of soda contains around 17 teaspoons of sugar, and a child’s risk of obesity increases by an average of 60 percent with every additional serving of soda. “Bubbling Over,” a recent study by Yale University’s Rudd Center, reported that 41 percent of Santa Cruz children and 56 percent of Santa Cruz teens drink one or more soda or other sweetened beverage a day.

Two main downtown lots to start charging parking fees
As of March 1, two free downtown Santa Cruz parking areas will become pay lots. Anyone wanting to park in the Cedar and Church streets Parking Garage (Lot 3) or the Cedar and Cathcart streets Parking Lot (Lot 4) will have to pay $.50 an hour or $5 a day. These lots, more familiarly known as the two-story garage by Regal Cinemas (formerly Cinema 9) and the Farmers’ Market parking lot, were previously free three-hour parking areas.

According to Marlin Granlund, City of Santa Cruz parking programs manager, the new fees “will go to the parking district and will be replaced back into parking district services.” This includes the maintenance of public restrooms, streetlights and sidewalks, in addition to the parking garages and lots themselves. Part of the profit will also pay for an additional patrol officer.

A look at school food reform with author Janet Poppendieck

School food in America is no picnic. Instead, it’s a messy web of federally subsidized programs with fair intentions but far from perfect outcomes.

Every five years, the Child Nutrition Act (CNA), which was instated in the ’60s to regulate the National School Lunch Program (NSLP)’s nutritional standards, comes up for reauthorization—originally due last September, the act’s rewrite continues to be pushed back. Meanwhile, a movement for school food reform has gained momentum across the country, including here in Santa Cruz. Last fall, Good Times explored the nutritional troubles with school meals in the cover story “What’s For Lunch?” Now, as the deadline for reauthorization nears, we take a look at the other side of the issue with New York-based author Janet Poppendieck, who discussed her new book, “Free For All: Fixing School Food in America” at a gathering of more than 70 Santa Cruz County educators, politicians and community members at a Feb. 5 event in Watsonville.

Most people are satisfied with their contributions to their community, but there may be a bigger reason those that volunteer do so with such fervor. Studies indicate people that volunteer in their communities experience longer lives, better relationships with their families and a stronger sense of social connection. Veritable nutrition ingestion for the soul.

The human soul (to quote C.S. Lewis “You don’t have a soul, you are a soul. You have a body”) cannot be disputed; it’s only what happens in death that becomes discussion. Nonetheless, people require balance between body and soul in order to sustain and live happy lives. The human soul craves connections with other souls. Interacting and supporting another human is nourishment for the soul.

It’s a bit of a slim week for me personally but still one I’m excited about. I know I mentioned the upcoming film adaptation of Mark Millar’s incredibly fun “Kick Ass” series not too long ago, and now you can take a peek at the source material.

This blog is a bit different from all the others as I am writing as a patient-to-be.  My wise  ENT doctor, Alexis Lane, has agreed that my enlarged and cryptic (in the “multiple caves” sense, not in the “short” sense) tonsils are to be relegated to the bin of lost body parts.   Now, you might think I would feel relieved to be rid of these recurrent sore-throat, chronic tonsillitis nightmares that I have experienced since the age of 6, and I am.  But as a holistic doctor by nature—I don’t LIKE intervention–especially when it comes to my own body.  Yet I have always let reason rule and, tomorrow morning, I am going under the knife.  Tonsillectomy is fairly routine in children, but in adults it is more tricky and MUCH more painful.

Laptops, music, art, conversation.  Where do the yogis meet?  Why, at Asana, of course, the semi-newcomer, which opened last July on Lincoln Street.  It’s easy to be a yogi and eat this delicious organic food and sip any of the 60 varieties of tea, while hanging with friends.  Asana tends to go light and pumped with flavor with its delicious array of paninis, focaccia pizzas, and my favorite, the “bowls to fill the whole.”  These bowls are filled with veggies, tempeh, sometimes chicken, and, and spices to warm your open yogi heart. Another favorite is the Grain bowl, with quinoa or brown rice filled with soup and topped with rainbow chard – my dream meal. Or just come by after class, sit on the couch, and sip tea.  Erin and Marshall, my recent servers could not have been more friendly or helpful.  Enjoy!

The subject of the film is Charles Darwin, but don’t go expecting high seas adventure in exotic ports on board the naturalist’s famous research ship, the Beagle. What director Jon Amiel delivers instead is Creation, a mild-mannered, at times claustrophobic, yet moving period family drama about the effect of Darwin’s radical theories of evolution on his family life, and vice versa. Scripted by John Collee (best known for his intricate screenwriting on Master And Commander: The Far Side Of The World), the film is based on the biographical book “Annie’s Box: Darwin, His Daughter, and Human Evolution.” Written by Randal Keynes (Darwin’s great, great grandson), using a wealth of private family documents, the book focuses on the difficult period during which Darwin produced—and almost failed to produce—his groundbreaking book, “On The Origin Of Species.”