Lack Of Sunlight Kills

I knew it! Finally I am vindicated! Living in countries like my own (Sweden) is detrimental to your health! You heard it from the horse's mouth.

The second comment mentions this:

This is EASY, people. It's not like they don't sell UVB 2% up to 10% daylight CPF screw in light bulbs at any decent pet store that carries reptiles.

Perhaps I shall look in to it...

I feel it in my fingers, I feel it in my toes.

But alas, love is not all around, but rather winter is. Some people like winter, I don't. I especially don't like winter when our hot water heater that heats the water in our taps and the radiators in our rooms, is on the fritz. I can generally feel the defects coming, like the fast onset of arthritis. My fingers go stiff and numb, my typing speed goes way down, and my toes go cold.
This wouldn't be that much of a pain if it happened, say, once a month, or perhaps even more seldom, but when it happens once a day on good days, and several times a day on bad (ohh how many times I've walked down to the kitchen in nothing but my towel to kick it back in to shape so that I can take a shower, and I'm not the only one who's done it).
For some reason that I can't figure out (frugality or continental europe-ness) the dutch only have 1-glass windows in their houses. This isn't a problem if it's about 25C every day, but when the temperatures start falling to 15,10,5 and 0, it really becomes a terrible thing. Not only is it cold, but it brings the heating bills up a lot, since more heat is dissipated through the windows, and more energy is required to warm the house.
Knowing the dutch, however, I doubt that they actually crank up the heat when needed, they just suffer in silence, being warmed inside by the fraction of a cent they are saving.

It's such a nice feeling to be able to use your hands and feet to their full capacity. I can't imagine what it would be like to be old in this country.

In other news, I'm currently reading about game theory and Nash equilibria in connection to the interaction between agents in a multi-agent system. All very cool stuff.
Now if you'll excuse me, I'll go back to freezing my nuts off and kicking the heater back in to operation.

(Hah, it turns out that I already had a label for "cold". Maybe this is a topic that I talk about often!)

Delayed Sleep Phase Syndrome

How is this not exactly the same thing as Delayed Circadian Rythm?

Delayed Circadian Rythm

I "suffer" from a condition known as DCR, or Delayed Circadian Rhythm. What this means is that I have a slower than average (24h) circadian rhythm. In practise, this means that I have trouble getting up in the morning (like most people in my profession), and I prefer staying up at night, which is also when I have the most energy (yet again like most people in my profession).

I'm not entirely sure I'm really suffering from this though. I mean I know getting up in the morning can be a bitch, but I've always attributed it to the fact that going to sleep at 4 am doesn't give you the necessary 8 hours to get up at 6 or 8 or whenever.
Suffering or not, there is a cure. There are several companies that make these devices, but I took some circadian rhythm test at http://www.apollolight.com, which seemed sincere enough. They gave me a tailored answer that seemed to be in line with the data I filled in to their form.
Apparently you can either take time-release melatonin capsules just before you go to bed, or you can purchase a lamp or light box (they strongly advice to get their brand, of course) that you would use on a schedule every morning to get your circadian rhythm back on track.
I have heard that these lamps can do wonders for you, and I'd love to have them permanently installed in my fixtures, but according to people in the know, that'll only exacerbate the problem, which in this case I guess would mean that you stay awake all the time.

I do know this, living in countries with long winters and few sun hours per day (if there is ever sun, rather than just a white-grey cover of clouds) makes Markus a dull boy. The virtue of being a student (there aren't that many virtues, trust me) is that you rarely have to get up particularly early in the day.
I don't mind the late nights though, and the early mornings I can live with. The biggest problem is that I feel sad and depressed during the day. I'd really like to get rid of that particular annoyance in my life, and then I could happily live with the rest.

EDITED TO ADD: I check Seasonal Affective Disorder up on wikipedia, and BAM!, it says that Swedes are common sufferers. Almost 20% of the population, apparently. The only two regions of the world mentioned are the US and Scandinavia. Very telling about my part of the world at least.

Family: Rosaceae

I just confirmed a suspicion I have had now for quite some time.
Not too long ago, I started displaying allergic symptoms when eating apples in winter. I didn't think much of it, but after a couple of trials, I simply gave up eating apples in winter. This was painful, as apples are not only delicious, but also healthy (though not for your teeth). Eating apples in spring and summer was no problem, as you will soon see why.
This winter, I also ran in to the same problems with almonds. They would give me the same allergic reactions of an itchy upper lip, and itching on the top of my mouth.
A couple of weeks ago, the same thing happened when I was eating some cherries that my roommate had brought home with him.
This made me very suspicious, but the dime didn't drop until today when I experienced almost the same thing from strawberries. My mouth would get itchy, and my face would get flushed. I sometimes get that reaction to tomatoes too, but that generally only happens when I have a small cut or something in my mouth. To any botanist readers, it should be abundantly clear now what types of foods I can't eat.
If you haven't guessed it already, it is fruits form the family Rosaceae. If you follow that link, you will find that all the above mentioned fruits are mentioned in one of the subfamilies of Rosaceae.
Unfortunately, the subfamily that contains cherries and almonds also contains plums, peaches and apricots, two of which I really really like. Surprisingly, I have never had allergic reactions to peaches or apricots.

Since I have pollen and pet allergies, I regularly take my antihistamines every day from early April to late august or September, depending on which country I am in. This is part or what clued me in to my new-found allergies, as eating apples in the summer presented absolutely not problems, since I was taking my allergy medicines at the time. Also, one small pill taken after the cherry incident completely relieved me of my pains in about 20-30 minutes (which is much faster than the 120 minutes that the box states with regards to pollen).

There is good and bad in this. The bad thing is that I can't eat a lot of the fruits I love anymore. The good thing is that as long as I take my medicine well beforehand, I can eat whatever I want. I just don't want to go from a 180 days-a-year allergy sufferer to 365 days-a-year.

Ten Politically Incorrect Truths About Human Nature

I just read this wonderful piece on psychologytoday.com about "Ten Politically Incorrect Truths About Human Nature". It confirmed some thoughts that I had had previously, and gave me some new insights as well. I can't imagine anyone who would not benefit from reading this article. Women, in particular, should read this. It is actually more an insight for them than it is for men.

The descriptions says

Why most suicide bombers are Muslim, beautiful people have more daughters, humans are naturally polygamous, sexual harassment isn't sexist, and blonds are more attractive.

The article can be found here.