Infection, Inflammation and Cancer

A few years ago a brilliant resident in medicine, a friend of mine, one day collapsed while seeing patients. He was in his late twenties. He immediately diagnosed himself, calling for the radiologist to do a chest X-Ray that revealed a left lung pleural effusion (Pleurisy). He then asked the resident pulmonologist to “tap” his lung so that he could breathe better. He conducted his own care in a very detached and practical manner in the Intensive Care unit until the fluid was subjected to analysis and it was determined that there were cancer cells in that fluid. It turned out that he had a long-standing “enchondroma” (a benign tumor) of the bone in his right knee. He had in the past year gone skiing and sustained an injury to that knee. The initial exaggerated limp had become barely perceptible over time, yet he revealed during questioning, that it still bothered him and from time to time and that he had seen the orthopedic surgeon to tap his knee for fluid buildup. Further tests and biopsies revealed that the cells from the pleural fluid in the lungs matched the cells obtained from the knee tumor. He had a diagnosis of chondrosarcoma of the knee cartilage with metastasis (spread) to the lung!

Tissue representation of inflammatory response

Infection, Inflammation and Cancer:

Does infection lead to cancer? This is a provocative question. If true it would send us all into some plastic bubble to live out our lives in seclusion from fear of acquiring infection. But true that this statement is, it is untrue for the majority of cases. A more apt question would be; does inflammation promote cancer? The answer to this statement is more apt to be a yes. Inflammation is a manifestation that occurs from injury and/or infection; it is the redness of the sore, the hurt from a wound, the throb from the injury and the fever/tissue warmth from an infection. Syllogisms aside, so if infections cause inflammations then by Giuseppe Peano’s logic, cancer must to some degree come from an infection.

Environment:

It is well known that 90% of all cancers are related to environmental stressors. 30% are directly attributable to smoking and other polluting agents like Asbestos, dust particles and radiation (Radon) amongst others. 20% of cancers are related to chronic inflammation resulting from various mechanisms.

Ulcerative Colitis and Colon Cancer:

Barium X-Ray of Colon Cancer

Let us look at the mechanisms of some known chronic infections that can cause cancer. The most well known is the disease Ulcerative Colitis. In this disease there is generalized inflammation of the colon and the constant inflammation leads to intestinal crypt deformation and a 43% chance of colon cancer within 25-35 years. The obvious question would be how does that happen. To solve that dilemma, we may have to delve deeper into the mode of action. So bear with me on this.

Cell, nucleus and the organelles

Infection, Inflammation and the Cell Within:

Imagine a cell, a round-looking thing that has another smaller round-looking thing inside it.  In between the two lies the cytoplasm where there are a host of little stunted sausage looking things called mitochondria. Ok so now that we have the concept, lets see what really happens:

PMN response

It appears that as the cell undergoes trauma from the infecting organism both outside the cell and within the cell there are two mechanisms of action that take place. For those who wish to avoid reading the technical aspect, a short summary goes like this: Infection causes the white cells to be liberated. These cells produce chemicals that invoke changes within the immune cells to help destroy the infection.

1. Outside the cell, before the infection has invaded it, the infecting agent causes irritation and liberation of the white cells. These cells called neutrophils or PMNs produce enzymes/cytokines to evoke the inflammatory and immune response. The immune cells are provoked via a protein product liberated by the (TAM1) or T cell activated Macrophages. This product is called TNFa. TNFa promotes another agent called NFkB that sends signals to the immune system via IL6 (a cytokine) This signal essentially motivates the immune system with an “intruder alert” warning. The immune system based on the data obtained from the sampling of the offending infective agent delivers first a host of antibodies in the blood stream and then parades the T- cells as the final line of defense. In most cases the infection is controlled by inducing death of the infective agent and then by causing suicide in the activated cells of the immune system and other tissue cells that were infected.

Lets take a deep breath from that. I said earlier that cancer would form but here I am ending that paragraph by saying the infection was contained by the very action that was supposed to cause cancer. Yes there is a beneficial aspect of the NFkB within the immune cells and therein lies the treachery of the dual edged sword. In the immune system the NFkB is designed to eradicate the potential for injury but in the tissues the mischief it creates is a whole different ballgame.

2. So assuming the infection was not contained and allowed to fester for a time. This leads to the continuous inflammatory response and further production of the TNFa and by shared cross-talk the production of NFkB in the infected tissue cells. The immune response having been overwhelmed by the chronic infection leads to further the sea of these proteins and associated agents that initiate the mischief. The overabundance of the NFkB leads to signaling via the STAT3 and IL6. The latter agent induces COX2, which stimulates the Prostaglandin E or PGE. This final agent then provokes the inflammatory response. The continued inflammation leads to a constant provocation of the tissue cells and aself-sustained vicious cycle of cytokine production that induces the cells to grow or proliferate. Somewhere in that confluence of this potpourri of enzymes, a genetic mutation lives or occurs and a cancer is born.

DNA damage

Ok, so inflammation is there, what about deeper intracellular (inside the cell) issues? There are inducements within the nucleus of the cells that are also ongoing. It appears that the NFkB causes about 500 different reversible and irreversible actions within the cellular DNA through epigenetics (Modulating the gene function by virtue of minor or major pressures from micro RNA, Histones etc. imposed on the genome) So not only is this cascade in flow, but other mechanisms are also being cumulated and promoted. In other words, “the hip bone is connected to the thigh bone…” The outside world is influencing the inside world through fluid connections.

Cancer cell with inflammatory cells

Proof:

Remember there was an answer to the question that was posed in the beginning? Does inflammation lead to cancer? And the answer was: Yes! Ok so if the forgoing is true, then an anti-inflammatory agent should reduce the incidence of cancer in patients with ulcerative colitis. And the answer is by using specific COX-2 inhibitors (Celexecob) including aspirin and other NSAIDs (Advil. Aleve etc.) the incidence of polyp formation and cancer is reduced many-fold in patients with ulcerative colitis, in Familial Polyposis Coli and Inflammatory Bowel Disease. So the proof IS indeed in the pudding.

Obtained from Oncology Journal

Mitochondrium (Cell's energy factory)

Mitochondria: 

3. There is another mechanism, a more sinister one that has yet to unfold its wings for us. This one is related to those stubby sausage-looking things called Mitochondria. The mitochondria in the cytoplasm of the cell are the energy-producing organelles for the cell function. Without them life would not survive.  Since no energy equates to no function. These little energy factories are at work from birth to death and it is believed that the aging process is the quiet, slow, unseen degeneration of the mitochondria. Interestingly the mitochondria undergo stresses via infection and inflammation by releasing Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS) and Reactive Nitrogen Species (RNS). 80% of all ROS is produced by the mitochondria. These reactive or nascent radical elements when released within the mitochondria lead to damage to the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA), which leads to loss of energy needed for cell growth and function, cell senescence and finally cell death. In the aging process, mtDNA damage occurs over decades. While in infection-inflammation scenario the time is shorter. These ROS and RNS liberations are directly related to the TNFa and NFkB production. Suppressing these particular protein may lead to slowing of the aging process and also help in abrogating the malignant process someday, if we can only keep their benefits and rid the bad stuff.

Before we ascribe cancer to just infection and inflammation it is important to note that a genetic mutation must underlie or occur for cancer to form. Although there is direct reference to certain agents that do cause cancer and a list is appended below, the vast majority of cancer have a gene mutation that when provoked with inflammation will lead to the propagation of the malignancy. For instance, a woman has a small lump in her breast and she sustains a traumatic injury to the breast. Shortly thereafter the breast cancer reveals itself as a rapidly growing tumor. Although the inception of the malignancy lay hidden within the tissues the provocateur was the trauma that promoted the disease by the liberation of the various enzymes and cytokines (Cell signaling protein molecules) alluded to before. Hence the inflammation provoked an existent quiescent (dormant) malignancy into a full-bore hell.

Dividing cancer cell

There is also recent data, which shows that excess oxygen acts as a culprit in enhancing the malignant nature of a tumor. Studies done on p53 deficient mice and in APC rendered mice when exposed to oxygen lead to a rapid development and propagation of the cancer.

     How irksome is this music to my heart!
     When such strings jar, what hope of harmony?

2 Henry VI, II, i  ~ William Shakespeare

Certain infectious agents when allowed to reside within human tissue cells for a period of time will cause cancer:

HCV

HIV

1. The Human Papiloma Virus (HPV). 15 of the 40 HPV types cause 70% of he malignancies attributed to these viruses by directly inducing the ROS damage to the cervical cells and causes Cervical Cancer. In addition these viruses also cause cancer of the penis, vulva, vagina and some of the head and neck region.
2. Hepatitis B and C viruses can cause after a long-term inflammation of the liver cause hepatoma. A select mutation in the Hepatitis B virus on its X-gene at T-1898 region is thought to be the cause.
3. Helicobacter Pylori (specific strain) infection of the esophageal and gastric (stomach) region have been known to cause esophageal cancer, and MALT lymphoma. H.Pylori with a Cag-A component inserts the H. Pylori into the gastric (stomach) cell and allows it to create an inflammatory response leading to release of Interleukin1-a (Cytokine) that creates the inflammation. H.Pylori has also been epidemiologically related to pancreatic cancer.
4. Bacteroides Fragilis a bacterium has been found in a high percentage of patients with colon cancer. Is this bacterium merely a by-stander or the chief instigator?
5. EColi a common bacterial pathogen called EPEC (Enteropathogen E Coli) specifically of the EColi O157:H7 strain has been reported to have cross linkage with colon cancer.
6. HIV infected people have a higher predilection for Lymphomas, Hodgkin’s disease and Kaposi Sarcoma.
7. Breast Implants: Recent studies have shown a higher risk of Malignant Lymphoma arising in the breasts of patients with breast implants. Questions remain as to the inflammatory link as the probable causality.
8. Schistosoma Japonicum (a parasite) causes bladder cancer with associated chronic cystitis in the surrounding urinary bladder tissue.

Certain non-infectious agents of ill repute:

Radiograph of Lung Cancer

Normal and Diseased Lung

1. Smoking is the scourge of a civilized society. Tobacco smoke contains 500 Reactive chemicals.1,000,000,000,000,000 radicals in gas phase and 1,000,000,000,000,000,000 radicals in the free radical phase per gram of tar phase. That includes hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) and  hydroxyl group (OH) radicals. Smokers with Emphysema or Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) have a 1.5-6-fold increase in lung cancer. Tobacco causes persistent inflammation by virtue of the radicals inhaled through smoking. This chronic inflammation is the net cause and effect of lung cancer and other organ cancers including bladder, oral and esophageal. Need any further reason to quit?

2. Asbestos in the Amphibole form with its straight sharp-edged fibers leads to chronic inflammation through low-level continuous production of the mitochondrial ROS. Smokers with exposure to Asbestos have a much higher risk of developing Lung Cancer. Again that is compounding the degree of inflammation.

Removing Asbestos from ceilings 

There are two genetic mutations amongst many that cause an enhanced signaling between the inflammatory agents/cytokines and the proliferative (growth) potential of the cells. These are the c-Myc and K-Ras genes. Mutation of the c-Myc and the K-Ras genes lead to the production of TNFa and NFkB, both within the tissue cells and the mitochondria spontaneously thus liberating the ROS and RNS (Oxidative Stressors) that force the cell to commit suicide or resisting, which then convert to the wayward cancer cells. Here a mutated gene has shown direct evidence of propagating the curse by inducing inflammation. Hence to some degree if not totally, inflammation is a part and parcel of cancer initiation and progression.

Cancer Cell

P53 The Guardian of the Genome:

Another very important mechanism, which acts as a guardian against genetically mutated cells by forcing them into committing suicide, is the p53 gene (aka the guardian of the genome, this is a tumor suppressor gene and it relegates any cell that shows up for doubling (growth) with an abnormal gene make-up into committing suicide (apoptosis)). If too many cells show up with gene mutations and a single one strays through this protective mechanism that cell will become the progenitor of cancer. On the other hand a defective p53 gene may be handicapped for its own function allowing the escape of bad cells. Circumventing the immune system and the p53 mechanism through this barrage of bad news leads to the conscripting of bad cells into the proliferative (growth) pool of cancer cells.

It therefore becomes obvious that although there are several protective layers representing multiple lines of defense against cancer, the vulnerability remains. The slow methodical process via infection and inflammation can inundate and subjugate the defense mechanisms of the body.

The issue of the chicken or the egg of cancer and inflammation is as yet little understood and under scrutiny of debate of whether the c-Myc and K-Ras genes get provoked by the constant and continuous release of NFkB as in chronic inflammation, or are they the initiators, preceding the inflammatory event? The promotional aspect is well detailed and there are rumblings about inflammation working as both the initiator and promoter. The data for the initiator effect is lacking but ever so step-by-detailed-step mounting.

From Pharma to Farmers:

Cooking Spices

Our bodies are our gardens to which our wills are gardeners. ~William Shakespeare

We then come to what can we do to prevent these ongoing inflammatory problems?

1. Aspirin. A large meta-analysis of eight studies done by Rothwell et al revealed that those individuals talking daily aspirin had a60% lower risk of colo-rectal cancer and a 30% lowered risk of other solid malignancies.
2. Natural agents: Fruits, vegetables, legumes and spices are notable in their ability to reduce inflammatory response.
3. Curcumin used in curry has been shown to decrease the levels of Y+TNFa and NFkB in the blood of individuals consuming curcumin when exposed to inflammatory provocations. In addition there was a reduction by 40% of abnormal crypt formation in the intestines of patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), which also is proof positive.
4. Green Tea, Red wine, grape juice and other bioflavonoid also reduce the ROS liberation and the inflammatory response.

From hamburgers and hotdogs to broccoli and cereals.

1. Moderating a diet from animal fat to vegetable, grain and fruit diet is heart and body healthy.
2. Adding colored vegetables and spices adds to the protective effects against wayward cells.
3. Stop smoking.
4. Stop Consuming alcohol.
5. Limiting exposure to sugar and salt.
6. Limit daily calorie intake to 2000 or less except in the case of athletes. A 30% reduction in caloric intake leads to a 25% increase in the life span.

What we have learned from gaining this knowledge is the old adage from Hippocrates: “Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food.”

In the days when trends are fashions may be we can lure the young with “Lets be cool and don’t play the fad food fool.” Or something like that. Inherent in all this is personal responsibility based on understanding. If the schools can teach the young about sex way before it is their time to know what the word itself means, then maybe we can educate them how to enjoy the colorful products of the farmers and their health benefits.

"...understanding
Begins to swell and the approaching tide
Will shortly fill the reasonable shores
That now lie foul and muddy." ~ Hamlet by William Shakespeare

References:

Rothwell PM, Fowkes FG, Belch JF, et al. Effect fo daily aspirin on long term risk of death due to cancer: analysis of individual patient data from randomized trials. Lancet 2011;377:31-41.

Weinberg F, Hamanaka R, Wheaton WW, et al. Mitochondrial metabolism and ROS generation are essential for K-ras-mediated tumorogenicity. Proc Natnl Acad Sci USA 2010;107:8788-93

Prasad S, Ravindran J, Aggarwal BB,  NFkB and cancer: how intimate is this relationship? Mol Cell Biochem. 2010;336:25-37.

Kamp Dw, Shacter E, Weitzman SA. Chronic inflammation and cancer: the role of the mitochondria. Oncology 2011;25:400-13.

Aggarwal BB. Nuclear factor kappaB: the enemy within. Cancer Cell 2004;6:203-8

Goldkorn t, Filosto S. Lung injury and cancer. Am J Resp Cell Mol Biol. 2010;43:259-68.

Grivennikov SI, Greten FR, Karin M. Immunity, inflammation and cancer. Cell 2919;140:883-99.

Montavani A, Garland C, Allavavena P. Molecular pathways and targets in cancer related inflammation. Ann Med 2010;42:161-70.

Ekbom A. Risk of cancer in ulcerative colitis. J Gasterointest Surg. 1998:2:132-13.

Weinberg F, Chandel NS. Reactoive oxygen specieces dependent signaling regulates cancer. Cell Mol Life Sci. 2009;66:663-73.

Balkwill F. Tumor Neoosis Factor and cancer. Nat Rev Cancer. 2009;’9:361-71.

Rachek Li, Grishko LI, et al. Role of nitric oxide induced mtDNA damage in mitochondrial dysfunction and apoptosis. Free Rad Biol Med 2009;47:750-9.

Prasad S, Phromnoi K, Yadav VR, et al. Targeting inflammatory pathways by flavonoids for prevention and treatment of cancer. Planta Med. 2010;76:1044-63

Gullett NP, Ruhul Amin AR, Bayraktar S, et al. Cancer prevention with natural compounds. Semin Oncol. 2010;37:258-81

Aggarwal BB, Kumar A, Bharti AC. Anticancer potential of curcumin: preclinical and clinical studies. Anticancer Res. 2003;23:363-98

Carroll RE, Benya RV, Turgeon DK, et al. Phase IIa clinical trial of curcumin for the prevention of colorectal neoplasia. Cancer Prev Res (Phila). 2011;4:354-64.

Popivanova BK, Kitamura K, Wu Y, et al. Blocking TNF-alpha in mice reduces colorectal carcinogenesis associated with chronic colitis. J Clin Invest. 2008;118:560-70

Nelson HH, Kelsey KT. The molecular epidemiology of asbestos and tobacco in lung cancer. Oncogene. 2002;21:7284-8.

Karin M. NF-kappaB as a critical link between inflammation and cancer. Cold Spring Harb Perspect Biol. 2009;1:a000141

      Sung HJ, Ma W, Starost MF, Lago CU, Lim PK, et al. (2011) Ambient

      Oxygen Promotes Tumorigenesis. PLoS ONE 6(5): e19785.

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0019785

Ulger Toprak, N., Yagci, A., Gulluoglu, B. M., Akin, M. L., Demirkalem, P., Celenk, T. and Soyletir, G. (2006), A possible role of Bacteroides fragilis enterotoxin in the aetiology of colorectal cancer. Clinical Microbiology and Infection, 12: 782–786. doi: 10.1111/j.1469-0691.2006.01494.

Success: The Pride in the Prejudice

Reframing the Mental Construct:

Were it not for failure, success would be bounded, were it not for a step back, the view would be limited and were it not for this, that would not be history. Humans have long been risk-takers. It is in that; this, that thought, understanding, art, science that civilizations have progressed.

Failure

The unreasonableness of the risk accounts for the leaps and bounds in life. Yet is it is all delivered through the faults and failures of preceding thoughts that marshal the forces of success.

Agony of Defeat

A drink to success is a dance with failures. We humans delight in the successful and telegraph the glory of that halo, yet unlike the enthusiasm for the victories we show colossal disdain for the failures. So why does this term “Failure” elicit the eviscerated sense of emptiness? Why does it knead the desires into a flattened sense of self? Why?

Just as there is loneliness at the top, there is a similar sense of worthlessness at the bottom. Both are extremes of a spectrum of desire and accomplishment. However failure is full of promise. The promise to shrug the misstep, the promise to try, the promise to change, the promise to succeed and the promise to achieve. Down there the world is awash with promise, but only if the mind suffering the defeat is able to reconcile the pain and continue to feed the desire.

Joy of victory

“You know,” he said in his most unassuming voice, “I like it here.” He reflected a moment and then unhurriedly continued, “after being humiliated by the biggest debacle of my life.”

He had lost a fortune in an enterprise that had more potential then raindrops in the clouds. His worth diminished in material sense now seem to embolden him towards a bolder and more determined future. Jack as they called him was a 48 year-old businessman. He had worked his way up the ladder into the CEO’s office. Now with the loss of fortune and termination from his employment, he sat quietly, his hands clasped save for the thumbs that kept wiggling –a physical manifestation of the turns and turbulence in his mind.

“I cant see the future clearly yet, but I do see the bright light out there.”

“Jack, I don’t know how you do it, but it is quite compelling to see you optimistic in the face of this tragedy.” His companion also a president of one of the “dot.com” companies sat next to him.

“Tragedy it is, no question about it.” Jack lingered a moment, “But I consider it an opportunity.”

“Good for you.” Dan his commiserating companion encouraged.

“You know, this product failure may have been averted.”

“Why do you say that, when all the experts have testified that it was a non-starter and that the company should not have invested 40% of their R&D capital for three years in it. That’s what they blame you for.”

“I know that well, Dan. But I also know the biologics of the product. I know the chemistry, I have spent the better part of the last six months figuring out the steps of this failure and I know that the basis on which I relied are sound. The execution of the trials was the problem. I should have maintained complete oversight of the methodologies of the trials, instead of farming it to the young turks the company hired to do the job.”

“But that was their domain. They were trained at top schools for just that.” Dan replied, concerned about his friend’s denial of failure.

“Yes but they did not have emotions and desire invested in it.”

“Jack let me ask you a question. How can emotion and desire make a failed product a success?”

“It is not a failed product, Dan. The faulty reasoning used in the trials with comparisons to other biologics of differing mode of action is not the right way of determining efficacy. One needs to compare it to the standard treatment and in the pilot trial our product was a huge success. How can it be such a success and fail miserably in the next go-around?”

“Well for one, the number of participating individuals in the second trial were three-times more and that makes for a more robust experiment.”

“Yes, but the comparator was changed. Instead of using standard therapy as done in Phase I, the trial managers used another biologic. The inherent problem there is if a slight disadvantage was seen early in the interim, there would be hue-and cry for cross-over. By virtue of that simple fact one product would suffer the ignominy of defeat. But if you tease out the details from the trials as I have done, our product was equivalent if not superior to the comparator. Further, If the trial had continued the extra six months it would have shown the disparity fairly easily.” Jack said.

Biotech Co.

Three hundred miles to the East of that meeting between Jack and Dan and 2 years forward in time finds the landscape changed for Jack. He has started a small company with four employees. He funds the firm from his savings. He works 20 hours a day and his goal is to create a biologic that will suppress the growth potential of the cancer cell by directing it to reconvert into a normal cell. He is close to realizing his dream. He is close to solving the riddle from his past failure. He is determined to see it to its natural conclusion. He is determined. He does not dream of success. He does not venture into riches that might follow. He does not look for fame. He works hard and each day a failure is something to learn from and success is something to be relegated to the past without fanfare. The adventure to him is in the journey and obstacles are just challenges to surmount. He calls his firm “Ontogenics.”

From failure arises the genius of the next success. Jack is sure of his convictions. He needs time and resource to fight the fight. The mixture for the brew is ready. The mixing is all that is needed. Jack and humanity both will find out soon enough.

Searching for the anatomy of failure one finds hubris and impatience that overrides compassion and dedication. Failure is a composite of many human attributes and none are as strong as desire. It is the desire that seeks to achieve and sometime the single focus blindness that marches to its own beat out-serves its purpose and reason. If all logical desires have embedded skepticism, then failure can be not as devastating when it arrives at the shores of reality.

Cirrus

In aviation there are several untimely frosts that have grounded a fleet of excellent ideas. Take for example Eclipse Aircraft Corporation. A brilliant concept of producing high integrity aircraft for a fraction of the market price thus minimizing profitability and beating the market through volume sales.  They took it from the Cirrus Aircraft Corporation page book. Cirrus had been delivering over 200 aircraft annually when the demand dried up just a little to hurt the survivability profit margin. An attempt to raise the price per aircraft later was met with skepticism by both the consumer and the investors. Cirrus Aircraft is currently pending sale to a Chinese corporation. Eclipse on the other hand has changed partners three times. It appears that the new owners of the Eclipse Aircraft assets have learnt from the past and are navigating gingerly through the current turbulent economic times to achieve success.

Eclipse

Success is a model built on failure. If a product comes to market with no history of failure during its development then it is destined to mediocrity. It is the failures that trigger the scrutiny to learn and retool or reallocate and redesign.

Phocomilia

Spectacular failures also pockmark the history in medicine. Take for example the drug Thalidomide. This was used as sedative in pregnant women only to find that it caused Phocomilia in the children (Phocomilia = born without arms and legs) Turns out that the drug has some inherent properties in the development of the vascular and growth structure of the limb-buds in utero. It was banned immediately to prevent further health problems. Yet recently the drug has found a significant success in the treatment of Multiple Myeloma and in Myelodysplastic Syndromes.  Of course it is banned in pregnant women still as it should be.

Megaloblastic Anemia with B12 deficiency

Pernicious Anemia we know now is a deficiency of Vitamin B12 absorption due to the lack of an Intrinsic Factor in the stomach (needed for its absorpton). But ages ago it derived its name of being pernicious since the cause remained unknown. In the days of blood letting and several years after, the treatment was amputation of arms and legs. Since Vitamin B 12 deficiency is associated with both limitation of Red Cell production and effect on the white cell but also has a detrimental effect on the brain’s function. This led to the drastic measures undertaken until the discovery that eating raw liver made the symptoms disappear and from there the discovery of the actual deficient causative element; Vitamin B12.

Nixon Kennedy Debate

Image mistakes have made many a man weep post election in the United States: Richard Nixon and his unshaven face on a national debate facing a young spry John F. Kennedy. Presidential contender Gary Hart and his dalliance with Ms. Rice exposed him to the moralistic reprimand of the voters. Unfortunately for Gary Hart he was never able to recover from that image, however Richard Nixon did become the President and succumbed to his internal psychological demons.

Apple's Newton Pad

A classic example of learned lessons comes from the worlds second largest enterprise in 2011; Apple Computer. Apple was ahead of the consumer by more than a decade when it brought the “Newton” pad to market. It was a spectacular device for that time. A new paradigm, yet for several reasons the market was not ready to embrace that technology. As time has passed Apple has reintroduced the pad/tablet concept slowly through iPod, then iPhone and now with iPad with huge brand-name and economic success. The learning curve was significant when the losses were mounting and the fate of the company hung in the balance in the 90s but true to his calling Apple’s CEO Steve Jobs knew when the time was right to start the new cycle.

iPad

Failure is a step towards success. It is through the missteps and sometime over-reach that we ultimately tie the knot of success to the product. The more the hurdles that we face the stronger we get, the more sharpened our focus becomes and the better our understanding. The desire to avoid failure is courting with the fate that leads to failure. Life lived in the trenches of defeat with fortitude and resilience will foster the eventual seed of ultimate success.

Live, Learn and Prosper!

Education and the Divinity of Knowledge

The First Bell of Desire
It was cold. The streets were deserted. Smoke rose from the chimneys of the shuttered houses.  The sun shone bright.

It was a cold winter’s day. My fingers were numb with hurt. The bare trees stood motionless in the bright sunlight. Not much of nature moved. The streets were quiet and the doors shuttered to the elements in the neighborhood made it look like a ghost town but for the wisps of smoke and steam that rose from the chimney tops.

Both paragraphs shed the light. But which one puts an image in your head?

It got me thinking. What has happened to the descriptive wonderland that the authors conspired to invoke in our mind. Where is that snippet of evoked thought from a well-crafted sentence? Where is the joy of play on words that Shakespeare or Byron or Wadsworth crafted to the squeal and wonderment of delight? When did it all end?

I have been told to write so that the masses can understand. Twenty years ago an author friend said speak to the 9^th and 10^th graders. The masses want to get to the storyline. They do not want to revel in words. They want to know what happens next. They want to finish the book. They want to find out who did what to whom and how. It was a revelation in itself, that the man who had written several books had made this preemptive decision that had launched his career as one of the preeminent authors. He was of course right. He kept stressing to “Keep it simple stupid.” And obviously he was right about that too for his career blossomed.

But, for that little resistant bug in my ear, I thought what of the art and craft of writing? What of the joy of discovering the meaning behind the Captain’s words; “See what a scourge is laid upon your hate that heaven finds means to kill your joys with love.” (Spoken by Escalus, Prince of Verona, in William Shakespeare, The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, Act V, Scene III) 

Prince Esculus in Romeo and Juliet

Even a simple statement as this, “Romeo and Juliet died to quell the thirst for blood between the two households of Verona,”  feels wanting. And if we were to dumb-it-down to something less charitable would it have the same impact if the Captain had said, “ Capulets and Montegues, see how your hatred of each other has caused your children’s death?” Or “your children have died because of your hatred for each other.” Oh what a travesty! There is a reflection, a dream-like manifestation in Shakespeare's words of an inner feeling that kindles thoughts in one’s mind when confronted with the art of expressing. 

Not everyone loves Shakespeare but his words are enduring since the 16^th century for a reason.

Then the other day, quite by chance, a different friend dropped another bombshell in my lap. I have been scurrying around the house trying to rid of it. I don’t really know when the fuse was lit or how long the fuse is. This bombshell was in a short descriptor that simply said, “I find it interesting but to have the average person read it and understand it you must write for the 5^th grade level.” Oh! Oh! Ouch!

“OMG, I thought. Gr8! What should I do?” Are we then relegated to the crunching compaction of the modern currency of communication? Is there no art of expression and must we advocate to the reduced level of understanding? Or should we raise the bar by forcing the young minds to bubble-up to the level where they may enjoy the fruits of the real meaning of the words. If we have slid from the 9^th grade to the 5^th grade in the past two decades, then what would happen in another twenty years? Will we end up communicating with “mama and dada” and sign language?

There is a historical trend that underscores the veracity of this dilemma:

In 1945, Henry Rinsland pioneered a work on evaluating the vocabulary of students between first through eight-grade level. He found after reviewing 100,000 compositions with six million words that the maximum vocabulary of the children was around 25,632 words.

Almost forty years later in 1984 Gary Ingersoll and Carl Smith did a similar study of 5000 students between ages of 6 and 14 years and a compiled total of 500,000 words, they found the maximum vocabulary of 10,000 words. This revealed a 61%  drop in a 39 year period. Of course the educators, stakeholders and philosophers all tried to dispel the obvious ramification by denigrating the study and finding mathematical models that would help their cause. But the stark reality remains. Reading and writing has deteriorated. The politically correct atmosphere does not lend itself nor to anyone else to scrutiny. It points the finger but deflects any directed to itself.

A report in the Education supplement of the New York Times in August, 30 of 2006 revealed that the SAT Reading and Math scores showed a decline. Excuses in that article abound, from, the students are under stress, the students are tired or because the tests take too long. The officials pointed out that the decline represented “one-half of one question” (What does that mean?) Other excuses included. “the students were unfamiliar with the questions.” (The student is supposed to know the subject not the question?) You get the drift. Rather then to gnaw at the tattered fabric of blame and irresponsibility, it is time to weave the golden braid of love of reading, understanding and expressing our thoughts. Education is not about the educators, nor the monetary benefits they derive, nor the briefcase of their portfolios. It is about imparting passion, creating the desire and the joys of seeing the light and wonder in a student’s eye. Education is the first bell of desire and the ultimate ring of truths weaved within it composed of history, mathematics, arts, sciences and philosophy.

So it comes back to who is at fault? Is it the student or the teacher? Or is it more in the lap of the society as a whole? I think it is all of the above. It is society’s ills that are preyed upon its inhabitants; the indulgence, the lack of responsibility, the finding of blame, the herd mentality and the notion to belong with the “cool people.”

There are some provocative and legitimate questions that we ask within the confines of a small gathering but never in the open forum. Why is it that all students graduate when some cannot even write or spell their own names? Why are athletes given priority in a college over a scholar? Is it because the athlete brings monetary rewards through the college team sports? Why can’t children be reprimanded for delinquency in their homework, schoolwork and their action? Is it for fear of a legal reprimand from the inattentive parents? Why is every bad behavior given a pass and every good behavior not recognized? Why is a child allowed to graduate to the next class even if he has failed his or her exams and/or not completed the curriculum? And speaking of the curriculum, why is the curriculum modified to suit the “current” standards? Who makes the “current standards?” Is it therefore the spineless capitulation to this thoughtless majority that is sinking the ship of critical thought and understanding in our children?

So at the end, I come back to my original premise, why must I or for that matter anyone else dumb down the youth of today?

Burrhus Frederic Skinner

There are few historical figures who have been instrumental in the decay of the human mind; Burrhus Frederic Skinner (March 20, 1904 – August 18, 1990) Professor B.F. Skinner was best known for his philosophy of “Radical Behaviorism.” This behaviorism essentially was based on his “operand conditioning,” whereby a continuum of reinforcing stimuli would change the behavior of an individual. He believed that freedom and dignity were examples of “mentalistic constructs” which are unobservable and thus useless for scientific psychology. B.F. Skinner said, “ Give me child and I’ll shape him into anything” and “Society attacks early, when the individual is helpless.” If you are still following along understand the seriousness of these two quotations and know that Mr. Skinner was and is still a very powerful name in Education.

George Sylvester Counts

 On the heels of Skinner was another notable worth drawing attention to by the name of George Sylvester Counts (1889–1974). He furthered the cause in education and societal change with his statement, "cannot evade the responsibility of participating actively in the task of reconstituting the democratic tradition and of thus working positively toward a new society."

Among others, author H.G. Wells took exception to this desire of Social Reconstruction by stating, "the complete ideological sterilization of the common schools of the Republic is demonstrated beyond question. The sterilization was deliberate." Mr. Counts also espoused the concept of “sink or swim together.” The idea being that if one student showed independent thinking from the herd mentality, the entire student body would be penalized for one’s action. This then was and is the attempt to suppress independent thought and minority opinion.

Theodore Ryland Sizer

The third character famous in educational reform in the United States is Theodore Ryland Sizer (June 23, 1932 – October 21, 2009). His premise although slightly different was still manifestly a behavior modification approach: He suggested that the students agree to generally behave in exchange for the schools agreeing not to push them too hard or challenge them too severely. He emphasized the depth of knowledge to the breadth and expanse of it. He believed not in the “electives” to broaden the student’s mind but in the mastery of limited core subjects in vocational tradition.

Again on the surface these appear benign but a deeper layer of this has steadily transformed the American Society. From a slow one step modification to a two-step modification of the educational school system a “gradualism” has led to a multi-step general belief that the mandates held today are for the betterment of a child’s education. If that is true then what about the literacy rate and the expanse and breadth of knowledge that seems so deficient. Where are the artists of today. Why is there a general decline in the scientific thought and a narrow but uncomfortable phase of plagiarism, sabotage and vilification to gain a higher perch on the ladder of success? Even in medicine such behaviorism techniques are being adopted to “teach” the students empathy and sympathy for the patients. While it is a noble attempt it is fraught with conflict about basic learning. Removed from such environment the person reverts back to the mean of his or her behavior. Such basic behavior comes from morals, ethics and logic incorporated through early childhood nurturing by the parents. Unfortunately the nuclear family is in a state of decline and thus…

The eternal spring of hope lies in the visions of a single individual with a broader sense of understanding of what is and what will be. It is to this child of man that our hopes cry out to. It is to this free mind with a defined moral and ethical compass that we ascribe our future. May he or she live long and prosper.

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Personally, I wish to explore the universe of all its hidden secrets and I wish to play the words for those willing to read and allow them to take the journey through my mind into a realm distinct from theirs. I wish to captain the ship of passengers that have the want and desire. I wish to educate without prejudice. I wish to teach without reference to a simplified mindset. I wish to hurt the senses so that the hurt of not understanding will make the reader want to learn, to make them embark on their own journey of learning, so they too can pay forward the divinity of knowledge. Of all the wishes that I have, I wish you the joy of reading and learning!

The foregoing paragraph is a testimony to a solitary individual little known but with words turgid with profound meaning:

“Where once it was the responsibility of the schools to foster the intellectual development of the child by providing essential basic skills, by cultivating the mind of each child to seek the systematic knowledge produced through centuries of academic endeavor, and by instilling our heritage and our. culture, the purpose of education today is to use the child as a means by which society can be changed. Education is now defined as a "change of behavior," and "to educate" means "to modify behavior." The question is "change to what?" ~ Jo-Ann Abrigg president of the Committee for Positive Education 1978

A copy of an Eight Grade School Exam in 1954:

Constitution_Test-Kenny_Hignite-8th_Grade-101Qs-1954-CA
-6pgs-EDU.sml.pdf

What lies ahead ~ Philosophy of Desire

Fortune and fame are the two imposters that all humans aspire toward. It is a human predicate for survival. It is the DNA directive. It is us, the beings, that read and write and understand and comprehend. It is future. It is thought and action. It is life.

Yet as we go about this evangelical crusade we grow ever weary of our own dictates. Time and age have a tendency to modulate and carve out such reflections into guilt by association or by such other means as we are unable to completely understand. These modulating influences seem to arrive insidiously and in such crafty mechanistic leverage that they modify those inherent callings. Some alter their desires because they have achieved that mantle and having climbed to that loftiest of rarified peaks they cannot see further for the clouds that obscure their vision and others that have fallen short point fingers at those that have. It is a dance of such rhythm and feeling that music is not required. The ebb and flow of desires dictates the slow rhythmic undulating directed flow of the dancers that splinters into confusion, chaos and ultimately conflict and then coheres once again with time.

Such compelling events have writ themselves in history for millennia; from Pharos to Romans, from Ming to the Maoist and from Brits to the Americans. The trailing and leading links of this historical parchment of human existence always seem to collect and disperse like the ant colonies in search of food. 

So why must now be different? Why should this era be any worse or better? Why must man do anything different than he has done before? The answers may lie in shady nooks of numbers and mathematics, yet to be deciphered. But the overarching sense of urgency seems to rest on the rising numbers of mouths to feed and the bodies to clothe in a resource-limited world.  The demands and needs rise geometrically as we struggle to perceive and comprehend what is to come. Do we artificially limit the population (as in China ~ now coming back to haunt) or try inflating resource by integrating technology if that is possible or find new moons to inhabit, or use self-replicating robots of Von Neumann fame with our embedded DNA to drive to the far reaches of our Milky Way Galaxy and populate new worlds?

On this planet, the poor are oppressed by the dictatorial regimes that usurp wealth and control with animalistic brutality. In the land of freedom the achievers are drowned in a sea of regulatory, stifling measures that handcuff them into inaction. And there but for such calumny the pitch and moment of any great enterprise is lost. Both peoples are subjugated into a land of apathy.  The powerful wrest control over both domains; the valleys and the mountaintops. It is all in the manner and the mode.

All previous dynasties and empires have risen and fallen by the swords of their own making. Yet as each fell a new one was ready to replace. There were lands to conquer and wealth to be accumulated, peoples to be subjugated and the all-consuming power to be used for accomplishing such ends. The world has been harvested and each ragged edge of its existence mapped. There are no new discoveries left to the Christopher Columbus of today, save other heavenly bodies. The firewall limits of mechanical discovery for inhabitation on this planet are at a finite end. Yet we must move on. Keep discovering where the eyes cannot see and the mind cannot reach. Salvation to this riddle might lie in that thought that has yet to be born in a child that has yet to be conceived.

Human follies may never end and we may never achieve the ultimate goal of a contended existence, but we must try for we all share the DNA and we are all destined to exist together.

The mountaintop is clouded over to blind, while those in the valleys with the acuity of vision, live and strive to gain that rarified access.  It is the abject desire that controls the future. Those that reside in the valleys become blind to the beauties of their vistas, while those that reside on the mountaintop are blinded by their achievement and the gales of disdain. The valley eyes are focused on the mountaintop enshrouded in the clouds that can only fuel the flames of their imagination because they cannot see the travails of those above. Those above can feel and hear the complaints below but cannot express, while the guilt of achievement in them grows and wanders into and against the very fabric of their own survival. It is only through the actual climb to that mountaintop reality that one becomes aware of these limitations. What both sometime forget is that achievement does need a place of residence –be it valley or mountaintop, to succeed.

So what then must this focal viewpoint of desire to do? Abdicate its universal calling? Deny itself the call of its DNA?  Forgo achievement? Live in the nebulous thought of mediocrity?

The key to success and the answers to all these questions lie within each of us. To aspire for a better future is a healthy and desirous thought, and to imagine the means to create it is its vaunted outcome. Wealth alone does not deem success. Out of poverty has risen many a great minds and many an enterprise of great accomplishment. The juice of success is not squeezed by the free flow of entitlements, but by the raw desire and hard work. It is not in the guilt nor in the blame that success will be breached.  Fortunes come and go just as fame is momentary and fleeting. The human predicate for survival and betterment trumps all else. It is in that ancient of things called intellectual providence where rise and fall is conceived and where life is destined to live with the full knowledge that “If it be not now, yet it will come.”

And so, the show must go on.

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul... William Ernest Henley (Invictus)