开云体育

At the turn of the millennium, the government in Glasgow, Scotland, appeared to stumble on a remarkable crime prevention strategy. Officials hired a team of Glaswegian contractors to beautify the city by installing a series of blue lights in various prominent locations. In theory blue lights are more attractive and calming than the garish yellow and white lights that illuminate much of the city at night, and indeed the blue lights seemed to cast a soothing, ethereal glow. Months passed and the city's crime statisticians noticed a striking trend: the locations that were newly bathed in blue experienced a dramatic decline in criminal activity. Just as the West Midlands police force clamped down on crime with billboards depicting human eyes, the blue lights in Glasgow, which mimicked the lights atop police cars, seemed to imply that the police were always watching. The lights were never designed to stem crime, but that's exactly what they appeared to be doing.

Word of the miraculous constabulary power of blue light traveled quickly. The police force in Nara Prefecture, Japan, installed a series of 152 blue lights at several crime hot spots. The crime rate fell by an impressive 9 percent , but the blue lights had other, unanticipated benefits: the suicide attempts that plagued Japanese train stations and crossings ceased altogether - not a single attempt was reported along the Central and West Japan Railway Company lines between 2006 and 2008. Even littering and garbage disposal seemed to decline in blue-lit areas, and blue lights were hailed as a panacea for several of society's most stubborn ills. Some enterprising minds even suggested replacing standard lights at gang hangouts with the pinkish lights that dermatologists use to inspect teenage skin for acne. What better way to encourage teen gang members to disperse than to emphasize their flawed complexions?

Amid the jubilation, researchers began to question the link between the blue lights and the range of reported benefits. Some suggested that the blue lights were brighter or attracted more attention than yellow and white lights, which merely displaced crime, suicide attempts, and littering to more dimly lit locations. Though researchers continue to question whether the lights were beneficial because they were blue, or rather because they attracted attention, several rigorous studies have shown that the color blue has remarkable effects on the human body.

In one study, two researchers visited a sawmill in Montreal, Canada.

Sawmill workers grade freshly cut pieces of timber and then cut the graded timber into boards for construction projects - exacting tasks that impose high costs when the workers make mistakes. Many sawmills operate through the night, and workers are sometimes forced to alternate between day and night shifts. This schedule wreaks havoc on a worker's circadian rhythm, the same biological pattern that causes jet lag when people travel from one time zone to another. Seasoned international travelers know how difficult it is to resist the urge to sleep when jet lag takes hold, and that same state of exhaustion causes countless accidents among shift workers. The researchers approached one such group and suggested an inexpensive, novel remedy: exposure to blue-green light. Blue-green light waves are the shortest visible light waves, and they trigger a range of biological functions that regulate circadian rhythm. Natural light is rich in these blue-green short waves, which is why sunlight is an excellent natural cure for jet lag. To test their theory, the researchers purchased a series of special lights that bathed the night-shift workers in a blue-green glow as they worked. When the shift ended the following morning, the workers wore special amber glasses to block out all blue and green light, thereby confusing their bodies into believing that they were working during the day and leaving work at night. The effects were remarkable. By the fourth day of the trial most of the workers felt more alert, as their error rate declined from 5 percent to just 1 percent.

Few people alternate between night shifts and day shifts, but a similar problem is said to affect millions of people across the world: seasonal affective disorder (SAD), or the winter blues. People who suffer from SAD tend to become depressed and listless for long periods during the winter, which also explains in large part why the disorder affects only 1 percent of Floridians but 10 percent of New Hampshirites. Among the many proffered solutions, blue-green light therapy stands alone as perhaps the least intrusive, and sufferers can purchase special lamps and light bulbs for little more than the cost of a standard desk lamp. The good news is that dozens of researchers have documented the effectiveness of the remedy, which has the same effects as genuine sunshine: diminished depressive symptoms and renewed energy. This research is generally sophisticated and rigorous, but color therapy began as a far less meticulous pursuit.


Adam Alter "Drunk Tank Pink" (2013)

Ask Well
I get frequent hangnails, and they hurt. Is there anything I can do to speed up the healing process?

A bad hangnail can ruin your day. Swelling, throbbing, tenderness - that tiny skin tear can cause considerable pain.

"There are a lot of nerve endings in the fingers, so the skin is very sensitive," said Dr. Amanda Zubek, an assistant professor of dermatology at the Yale School of Medicine.

Hangnails usually go away on their own, but experts say there are ways to speed up the healing process and to protect your fingers against them. A hangnail isn't actually a hanging nail - or even a nail at all.

"Hangnail is a funny term," said Dr. Ida Orengo, the chair of the department of dermatology at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. "It's really a small piece of skin next to the nail."

Indoor heating combined with colder weather can cause dry, flaky skin, Dr. Zubek said. This makes hangnails more common during dry winter months and in arid climates.

Harsh chemicals from cleaning supplies or nail polish remover can also increase your risk of a hangnail, said Dr. Shehla Admani, a dermatologist at Stanford Medi-cine Children's Health.

And while manicures might keep your nails looking nice, Dr. Zubek said they can sometimes set you up for hangnails. "A lot of times, the manicure technician will try to push the cuticles back, which can weaken the connection between the skin and the nail," she said.

Our cuticles help protect against infection, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, so it's best to leave them alone.

If you do find yourself with a hangnail, Dr. Orengo recommended softening the skin around your nail by soaking your fingertips in warm water or in a solution of warm water and white vinegar, which can help stave off bacteria. The ratio of warm water to vinegar should be about three to one, Dr. Orengo said - so if you're making a cup of solution, add a quarter cup of white vinegar to three-quarters of a cup of water.

Once your skin feels soft, she said, you can snip off the hang-nail. After trimming the hangnail, Dr. Zubek recommended applying an ointment like Aquaphor or Vaseline to the resulting wound. This will help keep your skin hydrated and protected as it heals, she said. Ointments tend to trap in moisture better than lotions or creams, and they're less likely to cause allergic reactions than over-the-counter antibiotic ointments like Neosporin, Dr. Zubek said.

If you don't have a tool to trim your hangnail, Dr. Zubek recommended covering it with ointment and a bandage until it heals usually in around three to five days - to avoid further tearing it as you use your hand.

"Each time it gets caught on something, it's going to get more traumatized and become a larger wound than what you started with," she said.

A neat trim can help, but all of the experts warned against trying to rip or bite off your hangnail instead. "This could tear off your hangnail further than you in-tended, which will cause more injury," Dr. Zubek said. And using your teeth to bite it off could introduce infection-causing bacteria, she said.

Keeping your hands moisturized goes a long way in staving them off, Dr. Admani said. She recommended applying cream or lotion throughout the day, especially after you wash your hands.

"Any time you wash your hands, even with very gentle soap, you're stripping your skin of its natural moisture," she said. Reapplying moisturizer after a hand wash and choosing a mild soap without strong fragrances, which can irritate your skin, could help.

Dr. Zubek recommended using a more intensive moisturizing regimen before going to bed, including applying a thick moisturizer or ointment and then wearing cotton gloves while you sleep. This will help the skin on your hands absorb the moisturizer, Dr. Zubek said.

If you notice redness, swelling or pus around the hangnail, Dr. Orengo said, you might have an infection and should see a doctor to figure out if you need antibiotics.

"A hangnail alone is not a sign of infection," Dr. Admani added. But if you're not sure, a doctor can usually tell.

From there, your doctor can determine what kind of infection you have and the best way to treat it, whether that's with oral or topical antibiotics or with a special antiseptic soak.
Caroline Hopkins

Neighborly
By Paul Rudnick

(Mrs. Burgus sued Rush, Dr. Braun and her insurance company over claims that he and Dr. Sachs had implanted false memories in her head. They settled out of court in 1997 for $10.6 million. "I began to add a few things up and realized there was no way I could come from a little town in Iowa, be eating 2,000 people a year, and nobody said anything about it," Mrs. Burgus told the Chicago Tribune in 1997. The Times. )

My name is Margaret Jo Stinson, and I'd like to share my own perspective on this sort of thing. I live in Birchberry, Nebraska, population two hundred and thirty-eight, and my neighbor of more than fifteen years is Teresa Krell, who is sweet as a bug. Every morning, on my way to work at my boutique, Stinson's Yarnables, Crochet Caddies & More, I wave to Teresa, who just yesterday was sitting on her porch in her housecoat and slippers, picking her teeth with what appeared to be a human femur.

I have no interest in cannibal-shaming anyone, and, again, Teresa couldn't be more friendly. On Halloween, she always hands out gift bags stuffed with treats, including what she calls "cinnamon pinkies." Last Christmas, we worked side by side at our church bake sale, with me contributing my signature whole-grain walnut-chive biscuits, and Teresa generously donating more than fifty cupcakes, frosted with buttercream and decorated with sprinkles, love, and molars.

I'm not saying that Teresa leads a satanic cult in her finished basement, but, when I asked her about the large duct-tape pentagram on her laminate flooring, she explained, "It came to me in a dream where I attended junior college and my art teacher was Walter Beelzebub, who purchased my soul in return for a pre-owned Chevy Equinox and one of those sectionals with cup holders." Not my business. Sometimes after midnight I hear wolves howling and voices chanting, "Serve the Dark Lord and buy him twenty-four-roll packs of paper towels at Costco," but then I remember that Teresa gets Hulu and sometimes falls asleep with her flat-screen on. I chatted with Pastor Meersman about whether satanic worship is real, and he offered me a cup of tea and asked if I ever checked the menu at Olive Garden for Genuine Tuscan-Style Lungs.

Of course, with Ozempic and all, everyone's always counting calories. So, when I saw Teresa putting a batch of skulls in her recycling bin, I said, "But how do you stay so trim?" Teresa told me, "It's all about portion control and letting my kids have the spleen." Did this disturb me? Not really, but I did notice that Teresa hadn't separated her bubble wrap and Styrofoam takeout containers from the blood-spattered nuns' habits. I thought about suggesting OxiClean, which gets out even stubborn grass stains, but just then Teresa lightheartedly called out, "Margaret Jo - catch!," and I found myself holding a foot that still had a Croc on it.

I decided to do a Google search about cannibalism and human sacrifice, and you know what? It turns out that those are America's third and fourth most popular rainy-day activities, right after board games and before matricide. I wondered what I'd do if I came home and found my teen-age daughter Kayleigh and her friends KayLee and Kayleen snacking on their pep-squad captain, Kaylette, and I decided at least they wouldn't be glued to a bunch of screens. I asked Kayleigh if she ever feels pressured to experiment with nontraditional Lunchables, and she just rolled her eyes and said, "Geez, Mom, it's called healthy eating. Get a life. Or an ear that hasn't been treated with pesticides."

Live and learn. At today's book club, Teresa suggested that we read a how-to guide called "Dismemberment for Dummies," and it looks interesting, although I still haven't finished last week's novel, which Teresa calls "a real page-turner," about a woman who murders her neighbor with a snowblower, sells the torso on eBay as a collectible, and falls for a handsome widowed farmer because she admires his warm smile and all the crumbling outbuildings on his isolated property. I also just saw that Teresa seems to be growing horns and a tail, but when I asked about them she shook her head, grinned ruefully, and said, "Menopause. You'll see."

So the moral is, when you come across a discarded buttock while Weedwacking, or if you catch yourself thinking, What would it be like to become immortal if it meant feeding on entrails, maybe seasoned with Entrail Helper?, don't be too hard on yourself. I've got to skedaddle and answer the door, because I can see Teresa wearing a hazmat suit and ringing my bell, alongside everyone in our spin class, and they're carrying pitchforks and napkins. As Teresa once told me, small towns are just gift baskets filled with solid values and homemade cobbler that screams.

For the landmark chase scene across the flats, Ford took the crew and John Wayne - the other actors were all shot back at the studio in front of a process screen - to Muroc Dry Lake near Victorville. Ford followed Wayne's recommendation and hired Yakima Canutt, who had been working with the actor on Poverty Row for years, as primary stuntman and wrangler. When Canutt walked into Ford's office, he was greeted with "Well, Enos, how are you?" Canutt was immediately on his toes, for very few people knew his real name - Yakima was a nickname from his days as a champion rodeo rider.

Although Ford had been planning to jettison a sequence in which the stagecoach has logs strapped to it for a river crossing, Canutt assured him it was do-able with a classic piece of movie magic: the logs were hollo props, and the coach was actually towed across the river by an underwar cable hooked to a truck. Ford was so pleased by the result that he gave Canutt carte blanche to design the stunts.

Canutt had a tractor dig up about fifteen acres of the lake bed to soften the soil for the stunt falls. Canutt came up with the classic and still remarkable sequence in which he, as an Indian, transfers from a horse to the teampulling the stagecoach. Wayne fires from the top of the coach and Canutt falls, dragging his feet on the ground, holding on to the harness between the two lead horses. Wayne shoots again, and Canutt lets go, allowing the stagecoach to pass over him.

The space between the horse's hooves was only three feet, and Canutt was a big man, nearly as large as John Wayne. It was mandatory that the horses be running absolutely straight, and even then, there was very little margin for error. "You have to run the horses fast," Canutt said, "so they'll run straight. If they run slow, they move around a lot. When you turn loose to go under the coach, you've got to bring your arms over your chest and stomach. You've got to hold your elbows close to your body, or that front axle will knock them off." Canutt had chosen a section of the lake bed that had not been softened up, so the stagecoach wheels would not sink into the ground any more than was absolutely necessary.

Ford was using three cameras on the camera car. Because he didn't like to rehearse stunts, feeling it made them look too polished, he asked Canutt about speed. "How fast will that team be traveling" he asked Canutt. "I don't want any mishaps." Canutt figured thirty-five to thirty-seven miles an hour.

At the conclusion of the stunt, Canutt, a good showman, added a little tag: as the coach passed over him, he rolled over, tried to get up, then collapsed again, just to show the audience that it hadn't been a dummy.

Canutt walked over to the camera car to find Ford leaning against it, looking at the ground. One of the cameramen said he'd probably missed the tag, a second wasn't sure, and a third thought he'd gotten it. Canutt volunteered to do it again. "You know I love to make money."

Ford looked up. "I'll never shoot that again," he said flatly. "They better have it."

Ford broke one of direction's primary rules by switching the position of the camera during the chase scene from right of the stagecoach to the left, thereby making it appear that the stagecoach had changed direction. It's the sort of thing audiences rarely notice, but critics always do, and Ford, defensive as always about any perceived shortcoming, had a commonsense explanation: "It was getting late and if I had stayed on the correct side, the horses would have been back-lit, and I couldn't show their speed in back light. So I went around to the other side where the light was shining on the horses. It didn't matter a damn in this case. I usually break the conventional rules - sometimes deliberately."

In spite of the dangerous stunts, everything worked the first time. As the production wrapped up, Ford called Canutt into his office and told him. "You can go home and put this in your notebook. Any time I'm making an action picture and you're not working, you are with me."

At the wrap party, Bert Glennon, Ford, and Canutt were talking when editor Otho Lovering announced that he'd looked at all the footage and thought Ford had one of the best Western pictures ever made. "Yes, thanks to Yakima Canutt," blurted Glennon. Canutt saw Ford glaring at Glennon and later told him that he'd cut both their throats. Ford never called Canutt to work for him again; the only times Canutt worked on a Ford picture - a stunt on Young Mr. Lincoln, and directing a third unit on Mogambo - he was hired by the studio.

Scott Eyman "Print the Legend" (1999)

Auditory Detail

Even though children and adults with ASD can easily pass a standard hearing test, they often have difficulty hearing auditory detail. When I was little, I could understand what people were saying when they spoke directly to me, but when adults talked fast, it sounded like gibberish. All I could hear were the vowels, and I thought that grown-ups had their own "grown-up" language. Children who remain nonverbal may be hearing only the vowels and no consonants.

My speech teacher helped me hear the consonants by stretching them out. She would hold up a cup and ask me to say "c-c-c-u-p-p-p." She alternated between saying "cup" the normal way and stretching it out. If there was a lot of background noise I had difficulty hearing. Eye contact is still difficult for me in noisy rooms because it interferes with hearing. It's like my brain's wiring lets only one sense function or the other, but sometimes not both at the same time. In noisy rooms, I have to concentrate on hearing. Some children will learn better if the words are sung instead of being spoken. When I was little we did lots of musical activities.

As an adult I took a number of central auditory processing tests and was shocked at how poorly I did. Words like "life boat" and "light bulb" were mixed up. I did poorly on the dichotic listening test where I had a man talking in one ear and a woman talking in the other ear. When I had to attend to my left ear, I was functionally deaf. However, both of my ears tested normal in the simple hearing threshold test. I also had difficulty discriminating between two short sounds that occurred dose together. For example, a one-second sound followed by a half-second gap and then another one-second sound is perceived as a single sound. Normal people can discriminate which sound has a higher pitch, and therefore their brain registers two sounds. I cannot do this because the sounds blend together.

Parents and teachers working with children with ASD need to be aware of these auditory processing difficulties. Sometimes a child's behavior can be a direct result of his or her lack of auditory processing skills, rather than disobedience or what may look like "acting out" behaviors. Imagine how you would (or would not) function if you heard only parts of words, only vowels, or only certain tones. How much important, relevant information would you miss every day, every hour, every minute?

A child who has difficulty hearing auditory detail will benefit from the use of visual supports, such as written words on flash cards, written instructions, or written homework assignments. He may need to hear and read the word at the same time for comprehension to take place.

Temple Grandin "The Way I See It: A Personal Look at Autism & Asperger's" (2011)

A man was recently arrested after an apparent theft gone wrong at a supermarket in Canada. Authorities say he tried to steal more than $2,000 worth of toothpaste. Pictures posted online show two bags in a plastic wagon filled with tubes of Sensodyne. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police in North Vancouver tweeted, quote, "We think he was trying to make a clean getaway." OK, sure, or he'll be the flossiest accused toothpaste bandit ever.

When Pola Negri finally arrived in Hollywood, she knocked 'em dead. She bought herself a white Rolls-Royce upholstered in white velvet and equipped with ivory door handles and dashboard. When she went for a ride, she placed an enormous white fur rug across her lap, and took along her two white Ras-Sian wolfhounds, one sitting on each side of her. Her chauffeur was dressed in an all-white uniform unless it was raining, and then he wore black. She wrapped herself in ermine and chinchilla and mink and draped herself with diamonds and rubies and emeralds and sat up straight in the back, staring stonily ahead, drawing all eyes. (She also kept a pet tiger on a leash, and frequently paraded down Sunset Boulevard with him.) She had her dressing room decorated exclusively with Chinese furnishings, and insisted the floor be strewn daily with fresh orchid petals. Her wardrobe was dramatic, either black silk, black velvet, or sable, or the opposite white silk, white chiffon, and ermine. She started the fad for toenails painted fire-engine red. Furthermore. she had the guts to chase a man, and once she caught him, she knew how to conduct a torrid love affair twenties-style, worthy of the plots of her movies. Both Charlie Chaplin and Rudolph Valentino became her lovers. Chaplin couldn't take the heat and begged out as soon as he could, but Valentino could match her style, having had considerable training with other women who knew how to get attention. (For years, everyone assumed that the famous "woman in black" who showed up annually at Valentino's grave was Pola Negri. Who else, they figured, would think up a dramatic scenario like that, and who else would have the nerve to pull it off, year after year? How-ever, it wasn't really her.) Among Negri's other lovers was rumored to be Adolf Hitler, but this idea was put to rest by Negri's wardrobe mistress, who scoffed,

Jeanine Basinger "Silent Stars" (1999)

I can remember the frustration of not being able to talk at age three. This caused me to throw many a tantrum. I could understand what people said to me, but I could not get my words out. It was like a big stutter, and starting words was difficult. My first few words were very difficult to produce and generally had only one syllable, such as "bah" for ball. It was like a big stutter. I can remember logically thinking to myself that I would have to scream because I had no other way to communicate. Tantrums also occurred when I became tired or stressed by too much noise, such as horns going off at a birthday party. My behavior was like a tripping circuit breaker. One minute I was fine, and the next minute I was on the floor kicking and screaming like a crazed wildcat.

I can remember the day I bit my teacher's leg. It was late in the afternoon and I was getting tired. I just lost it. But it was only after I came out of it, when I saw her bleeding leg, that I realized I had bitten her. Tantrums occurred suddenly, like epileptic seizures. Mother figured out that like seizures, they had to run their course. Getting angry once a tantrum started just made it worse. She explained to my elementary school teachers that the best way to handle me if I had a tantrum was not to get angry or excited. She learned that tantrums could be prevented by getting me out of noisy places when I got tired. Privileges such as watching Howdy Doody on TV were withdrawn when I had a bad day at school. She even figured out that I'd sometimes throw a tantrum to avoid going to class.

Temple Grandin "Thinking in Pictures" (1996)

George W Bush" "We've had triumphs. Made some mistakes. We've had some sex uh setbacks." And what could a media adviser do with a politician who, in an attempt to praise dogs and his wife, managed to insult both: "It has been said by some cynic, maybe it was a former president, 'If you want a friend in Washington, get a dog.' We took them literally that advice as you know. But I didn't need that because I have Barbara Bush."

Even when his handlers tried to make a speech goof-proof, Bush managed to snatch incoherence from the jaws of clarity. During his reelection campaign, when polls suggested, with some justification, that he lacked empathy, his speechwriters fed the stage direction (message: I care) into the teleprompter to remind him to read the next line with something approximating human emotion. Instead, he read the stage direction aloud, robotically emitting the non sequitur MESSAGE I CARE to a confused audience.

Andy Borowitz "Profiles in Ignorance: How America's Politicians Got Dumb and Dumber" (2022)

The Concessions of the Weak are the Concessions of Fear
(Edmund Burke, Parliament member, colonial sympathizer, 1775 )

Said by Edmund Burke, statesman, orator, all-around good egg.

Now, would you believe that I said this at the top of my voice only last week without a syllable altered in a trolley bus.

The reason WHY came into my mind because I'd just come from a meeting with a man who'd summoned me to him. And he said, "I've heard you on this program on the wireless where it said that you are a member of the society of the RSVP, which is the Royal Society for the Verification of Proverbs.

Which is a thing I HAVE spoken about at great length from this program. It's the sort of Society where I do things like taking a bull INTO a china shop and seeing actually what happens.

And he said, "We have got out. We specialize in educational toys. We have got out this do-it-yourself proverb-verifying children's kit. I'll show you one. What's more I would like you to be the very first customer of it since it's a mere thirty bob. And I'm sure you'd like to own one."

And he brought out this small cardboard box and gave it to me. And I opened it. And there were two pebbles inside. That's all.

So I said, "You said this was educational toy."

He said, "Hours of fun and pleasure. And learning all the while."

I said, "What do you do?"

He said, "Well take one stone. Take one of these pebbles."

I took one.

He said, "Press it. Press it."

I pressed it

He said, "Stamp on it."

I stamped on it.

He said, "Put your full weight on it."

I did.

He said, "Well. Can you imagine a child doing that?"

I said, "Teach him what?"

"No blood is there?"

So, I said, "No. That would hardly occupy a healthy child for any length of time."

He said, "Of course not. The child has to have exercise. Exercise out in the open air. Take this pebble up to the top of one of your hills. A high spot. Put it at the top. Let it roll. Follow it down. The little legs, the little muscles tightening. Get to the bottom. No moss. Child finds out for HIMSELF this way, you see."

I said, "I think you're ON to something here. Just tell me. You have TWO pebbles in this."

He said, "Yes. The other one serves not only as a spare or a replacement because children do lose things. Also in itself, just by being there it teaches the child the verification of anoher proverb. There is more than one pebble on the beach."

I said, "I'll take it."

I paid over the thirty bob. And I was RUSHING it over to Frank Muir's to show him this bargain.

I was sitting in that trolley bus. And I was looking at it. And it suddenly occurred to me. I'd paid thirty bob for a small cardboard box with two pebbles inside.

And it was at this MOMENT of realization that I suddenly proclaimed, "The Concessions of the Weak are the Concessions of Fear."

And when the arresting officer asked me why I had chosen this particular statement of this particular eminent eighteenth century politician.

Because it was at this point that I realized that I too had been a bit of a Burke.

Denis Norden
670704

Ask Well

I keep seeing ads for hydrogen-infused water. Can these products do anything for my health?

One woman on TikTok said that it had cured her sore throat and fever. Another wrote that it can help you lose weight, increase energy and strengthen your immune system.

Drink hydrogen water, some product advertisements go on to say, and you'll 'enjoy reduced pain and inflammation, improved gut health, superior hydration, in-creased endurance, a better mood and even slowed signs of aging.

Hydrogen water is made by simply adding more H's into your H20. But when it comes to its purported health advantages, researchers are skeptical.

"For almost every study that's shown a benefit, there's another study that questions the benefit," said Dr. Mitchell Rosner, a kidney doctor who specializes in fluid and electrolyte disorders at UVA Health in Charlottesville, Va. Here's what we know.

Hydrogen water is often packaged in sleek drink pouches or aluminum cans. Some brands sell dissolvable hydrogen tablets to plop into water, or high-tech bottles that you fill with regular water and then infuse with hydrogen by pressing a button.

Some of these drinks, also called hydrogen-rich and hydrogen-infused water, have added flavors or electrolytes, but the basic product involves regular water plus hydrogen gas molecules, or H2, mixed in.

Because hydrogen molecules are extremely small, they easily dissolve in water, said Dr. Gagandeep Dhillon, an assistant medical director at the University of Maryland Baltimore Washington Medical Center.

Hydrogen is so small and light that it also easily escapes water, Dr. Dhillon said. To ensure the molecules stay put, some brands package their product in special aluminum containers or recommend drinking their product within 30 minutes of opening it.

All water molecules have two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom, as shown in its chemical name, H20. But once those atoms combine into one water molecule, Dr. Dhillon said, our bodies can't make use of the hydrogen and oxygen separately.

The idea behind hydrogen water is that the accessible hydrogen molecules - ones not bound to oxygen - can enter our body's cells and generate an antioxidant effect. Dr. Rosner said. Most of the touted health benefits, which also include enhanced exercise performance, speedier injury recovery, clearer skin and fewer allergy symptoms, come from the idea that hydrogen has antioxidant effects.

The science backing the health claims of hydrogen-infused water is shaky at best, said Henry Jay Forman, an emeritus professor of gerontology at the University of Southern California. Scientists already disagree about whether supplementing your diet with extra antioxidants can improve your health, he said.

Few studies supporting the drink's benefits have been performed. And they are small and often contradictory. In one 2020 study of 16 male athletes, researchers found that hydrogen-infused water improved the race times and fatigue levels of the four slowest runners but not of the four fastest runners in the group. But a 2021 study of 37 trained and untrained cyclists had different results. Only the trained cyclists benefited from hydrogen-rich water in terms of endurance, speed and fitness when compared with the untrained cyclists.

"More studies are needed to see if drinking hydrogen-infused water can reduce inflammation, aging or disease," said Tamara Hew-Butler, a sports medicine researcher at Wayne State University. Still, some people say they feel benefits from the water. Dr. Forman said this might be because of the placebo effect, in which people feel better because they believe it works.

Although the benefits are murky and drinking too much water can be dangerous, Dr. Rosner said that hydrogen-infused water wasn't linked to any serious health risks. "Everything I've read seems to say there's no downside," he said. The Food and Drug Administration considers it to be "generally recognized as safe," as long as the hydrogen molecules make up no more than 2.14 percent of the drink.

Hydrogen-infused water can be expensive, which is why both Dr. Rosner and Dr. Forman said it might not be worth it without more proven benefits.

"If you have $100 and want to improve your health, you're probably better off buying $100 of fresh fruits and vegetables than wo cases of hydrogen water," Dr. Cosner said.

Caroline Hopkins

Missed Connections, 1/7/21
By Mike O'Brien

Craigslist, Washington, D.C.

Funky orange cap
I saw you walking from the speech to the Capitol. You were wearing a tactical vest and funky little orange cap. You were screaming something about being a patriot. Our eyes met, and we spoke briefly and realized we were both interested in travel and in scary movies. You were really out of breath. I helped you get a Marlboro wrapper out of your beard. You mentioned multiple times that you like feet and wanted me to know that you rank feet above even travel and scary movies. Wish I'd asked for your number to chat more.

Cuter Bo Burnham
You looked like Bo Burnham but cuter and with more of a beard. You were wearing a Colonial-guy uniform and climbing onto a statue of Gerald Ford when our eyes met. I asked if I could climb onto the statue with you and you said no. That made me smile. We talked/shouted a little. You mentioned that you owned two chameleons and that you were in the market for a third. I said I'd keep an ear out. Would love 2 get coffee.

Art lover
You were trying to pry a painting off the wall using a shard of glass. You had a beard. I'd been separated from my husband in the crowd and ended up shouting with you a little bit. You yelled "Best of all time" in my face. I think I said, "O.K., sounds good," but it may have been lost in the noise. I had on khaki pants. Want to talk more or have coffee?

Mystery man with tucked-in shirt
You were wearing a blue shirt that was intensely tucked into your jeans. Our eyes locked while you were setting up a gallows. Don't know if u remember me. I'm shy AF and was wearing a gas mask with a steamed-up visor, so maybe you didn't even notice the eye contact, LOL. If you felt what I felt, hit my mailbox ASAP. I'm dying literally I'm sick LOL real.

Military man looking for bathroom
You were an older guy, sixties. I'm in my fifties. You were cute and wearing a vaguely military uniform and holding a huge flag, but I could tell you were not really in the military and never had been. Granted, I'm just a Bulgarian cleaning woman, but I can tell when someone is really in the military or knows what it's like to have been in the military. Any military. Like, even the worst one ever wouldn't have its uniform look like that. Anyway, we made eye contact and you screamed in my face that you needed to find a bathroom or I'd be working overtime mopping the Capitol floor, and I pointed you toward the men's room. But then you hesitated like you were going to say something else - I want to know what you were going to say. I think I thought it, too.

Cute aide
You were crawling over me on the floor of the gallery when our eyes met. You were wearing a cute blue suit and an employee badge. We bonded about both wanting to get out of there. You also mentioned liking the band Arcade Fire. I didn't say anything, which you took to mean that I didn't like Arcade Fire, but really I'd been distracted by the sound of glass shattering. You then spoke at length about how you don't like Arcade Fire that much. Actually, I like Arcade Fire fine. Would like to get coffee. I'm a senator.

Smile or strain
You were the only girl I saw all day. I was told that this would be a place to meet ladies, but that was certainly not the case, ha. You were wearing two camouflage jackets. One on top of the other, ha. We made eye contact while you were taking a dump in the rotunda. Couldn't tell if you were smiling or straining, but I hope smiling! 'Cause I thought you were cute. Let me know which it was. Would like to go for coffee if was smiling.

The New Yorker, July 4. 2022

When I was a boy of seven, I was a passionate baseball fan, a New York Yankees fan, as was my father. He had once met Babe Ruth, and I was so proud of that. My father was a classical flute player, but would volunteer to play piccolo with the band at Yankee Stadium to see the games for free. It was at that time that he met the Babe - the "Bambino," the "Sultan of Swat!"

Two years later, I became a statistic during the infantile paralysis epidemic of 1949 and found myself paralyzed, unable to walk or move any part of the left side of my body. My mother told me that had I died, they would have always wept when they saw a baseball game, because I had always said I wanted to be a baseball player.

My father was the chief musical arranger at Radio City Music Hall during that dark time. The big boss of the Music Hall was Leon Leonidoff, who, as It turned out, was a good friend of Joe DiMaggio. Somehow, the Yankee Clipper learned of my condition, a nine-year-old Yankee fan lying paralyzed at home. He took a new, clean baseball and brought it to each team member of the 1949 World Champs, and each one signed it, along with a prominent DiMaggio signature on the top, and my father brought that ball home to me.

Each signature was in different ink, so I knew the ball was the real thing and not a printed or mass produced signed ball. It meant so much to me that Joe had taken the ball in his hand and went one by one to have all of his teammates sign it, including Yogi Berra, Phil Rizzuto, Stirnweiss, Bobby Brown - all my heroes.

I loved Joe DiMaggio for this kindness shown to a boy he didn't know. Whenever something happened to him, his career, and his marriage, I remembered my feeling of gratitude and appreciation for his kindness to me.

Of course, I still have that baseball. The signatures have faded somewhat due to exposure to light, but I can still make out the names and, most prominently, Joe DiMaggio's beautiful signature.

Francis Ford Coppola AUGUST 2016

Rock Positano "Dinner With DiMaggio" (2016)

Alternative versus Conventional Medicine

Many people make the mistake of taking sides in the debate about conventional medications versus alternative treatments, such as special diets or vitamin supplements. Being a practical person, I think the best approach is to pick the item(s) from both that work best for you or your child. One of the biggest problems in the autism field is that some specialists become too wedded to their favorite theory. The debate over the benefits of conventional medication versus so-called "natural" or "biomedical" treatments has turned into a hotly contested issue. My advice is to ignore all the rhetoric and logically figure out what works for your child. The way I see it, this is the truly scientific approach to helping your child.

I have observed individuals who responded very well to a combination of conventional medicine and alternative treatments. The most famous case is Donna Williams, an individual with autism who wrote Nobody Nowhere and Somebody Somewhere. Over the years I have observed Donna at several conferences. During the early years she could not tolerate people clapping, and as soon as her presentation was finished, she would retreat back to her room. Today, she is able to tolerate all the noise and commotion of a big convention center. When I first talked to Donna she told me that Irlen lenses and the gluten and casein free (GFCF) diet had helped to reduce her severe sensory problems. At that time, Donna was an avid believer in the use of alternative methods instead of conventional medications.

At the 2002 world autism conference in Australia, Donna told the audience that she had added a tiny dose, just one-quarter of a milligram, of Risperdal to her daily regime. The combination of a small amount of medicine along with the special diet really brought about additional positive changes for her. One case report showed that Risperdal (risperidone) may reduce sound sensitivity. That may explain why Donna can now tolerate large noisy places. The tiny dose improves safety.

I know another person who was helped greatly by a combination of Irlen lenses, the GFCF diet, and Zoloft. Zoloft was used initially; the lenses were added a year later. The glasses really helped her organize her writing and do better school work. This was not the placebo effect, because initially she thought that colored glasses were "stupid." Today she loves them. About a year after the glasses were introduced, she started the GFCF diet. This resulted in further improvements. Today she still follows a very strict gluten-free diet, but has been able to add dairy products back into her diet. Like Donna, she continues to use conventional medicine, diet, and Irlen lenses.

On the other hand, do not keep adding more and more things into the mix. Taking six different conventional medications is more often harmful than beneficial. Taking every supplement in the health food store is equally foolish. I like the "a la carte" approach. Use a few items from both sectors of medicine that really work for you, discontinue the items that do not. For me, the GFCF diet had no effect on my anxiety, but I prevent a light-headed, dizzy sensation by eating some animal protein, such as beef or eggs, every day. I also take conventional antidepressant medication.

I have found a combination that works well for me. With some experimentation, you can find what works best for you, or your child, too. It's worth the effort.


Temple Grandin "The Way I See It: A Personal Look at Autism & Asperger's" (2011)

The Good Enough Baby

By Andy Borowitz

As new parents, we hold ourselves to impossibly high standards. We settle for second or third best when we buy a house or a car, and, when it comes to choosing a spouse, ninth best will often do. And yet, for some reason, we throw this time-tested principle out the window when we have a baby. We try to be "perfect" parents and raise the "perfect" baby, even if that means taking care of the baby "all the time."

In reality, trying to raise a perfect baby is futile, because, behavior-wise, babies are pretty craptastic. Howling, vomiting, projectile-shitting-kind of hard to shoot for perfection when you're doing appalling things like these around the clock. Despite all the media hype about babies, they're loud, dumb, and grimy to the touch, just one rung on the evolutionary ladder above a common marmoset. I'm speaking from my experience not only as a parent but as a pediatrician.

But, while raising a perfect baby is impossible, raising a "good enough baby" is surprisingly easy. That's the message of my new book, "The Good Enough Baby: Settling for Lillie Miss Adequate." Let's begin with what I call the Good Enough Baby Checklist:

1: Is My Baby Clean Enough?

Conventional wisdom says that a baby should be clean enough to eat off of. That's absurd, unless you actually intend to eat off of your baby, which I don't recommend. Babies tend to writhe spasmodically and shoot geysers of half-digested food from their mouths, making them a less than ideal dining surface.

There are many misconceptions about babies and baths. The old saying "Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater" implies that the baby is something amazing that you'd want to keep, while the bathwater is something disgusting that you're right to throw out. Well, who made the bathwater disgusting? That's right, the baby. The bathwater was probably drinkable before the baby, caked with the remains of meals (and worse), polluted it. A better, less contradictory saying would be "Don't give your baby a bath."

It's easy to keep a baby "clean enough" without actually bathing her. Let's say you've been invited to a house party. En route, quickly run the baby through a lawn sprinkler, then let her dry in the sun. When you get to the party, if people recoil as if they've just walked past a chicken-processing plant, run her through a sprinkler again. Fortunately, keeping your baby clean enough is not very time-consuming, because, as a new parent, you will find yourself invited to very few parties.


2. Is My Baby Well Fed Enough? There's an old wives' tale that says babies cry when they're hungry. Some parenting books buy this whopper, hook, line, and sinker, suggesting that a baby be fed "on demand." This is hardly a good way to prepare a baby for the real world, where the only things available "on demand" are cable movies, usually dumbass shit like "Did You Hear About the Morgans?" There are plenty of other reasons that a baby cries besides hunger. She might be sad about something that happened to her recently, such as that nasty business with the sprinkler. Even more likely, she is trying to tell you something, for example, that she is tired of seeing you so much. This might be your cue to have dinner out or catch a basketball game.

3. Is My Baby Stimulated Enough? During the past few decades, early-development "experts" have stressed the importance of so-called "enrichment activities": reading to babies, singing to them, even talking to them. We are now finding that these activities, in addition to being excruciating for the parent, may actually be harmful to the baby, lengthening her attention span to the point where she wil, be unable to enjoy most popular entertainment. Fortunately, there's a simple way to reverse this damage, using a system I call FIT (Facebook, iPhone, TV). By exposing your baby to these three thigns for as many hours as possible. You'll insure that she'll be well equiped for a lifetime of pointless multitasking. Quick test: Put your hands in front of your eyes and play peekaboo with your baby, If she ignores you and picks up your phone, reward her with her favorite app.

And that's the Good Enough Baby Checklist, Actually, there are seven more items on the list, but let's not be slave drivers about this.

One final caveat. Some parents may be under the impression that I wrote 'The Good Enough Baby" in order to provide a shortcut for people who don't take the job of parenting seriously. Nothing could be further from my intention. As a pediatrician, I always remind parents: When you have a baby, you are bringing a human being into this world, and you are responsible for that human being for the next five or six years.

THE NEW YORKER, SEPTEMBER 27, 2010

The Good Enough Baby

By Andy Borowitz

As new parents, we hold ourselves to impossibly high standards. We settle for second or third best when we buy a house or a car, and, when it comes to choosing a spouse, ninth best will often do. And yet, for some reason, we throw this time-tested principle out the window when we have a baby. We try to be "perfect" parents and raise the "perfect" baby, even if that means taking care of the baby "all the time."

In reality, trying to raise a perfect baby is futile, because, behavior-wise, babies are pretty craptastic. Howling, vomiting, projectile-shitting-kind of hard to shoot for perfection when you're doing appalling things like these around the clock. Despite all the media hype about babies, they're loud, dumb, and grimy to the touch, just one rung on the evolutionary ladder above a common marmoset. I'm speaking from my experience not only as a parent but as a pediatrician.

But, while raising a perfect baby is impossible, raising a "good enough baby" is surprisingly easy. That's the message of my new book, "The Good Enough Baby: Settling for Lillie Miss Adequate." Let's begin with what I call the Good Enough Baby Checklist:

1: Is My Baby Clean Enough?

Conventional wisdom says that a baby should be clean enough to eat off of. That's absurd, unless you actually intend to eat off of your baby, which I don't recommend. Babies tend to writhe spasmodically and shoot geysers of half-digested food from their mouths, making them a less than ideal dining surface.

There are many misconceptions about babies and baths. The old saying "Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater" implies that the baby is something amazing that you'd want to keep, while the bathwater is something disgusting that you're right to throw out. Well, who made the bathwater disgusting? That's right, the baby. The bathwater was probably drinkable before the baby, caked with the remains of meals (and worse), polluted it. A better, less contradictory saying would be "Don't give your baby a bath."

It's easy to keep a baby "clean enough" without actually bathing her. Let's say you've been invited to a house party. En route, quickly run the baby through a lawn sprinkler, then let her dry in the sun. When you get to the party, if people recoil as if they've just walked past a chicken-processing plant, run her through a sprinkler again. Fortunately, keeping your baby clean enough is not very time-consuming, because, as a new parent, you will find yourself invited to very few parties.


2. Is My Baby Well Fed Enough? There's an old wives' tale that says babies cry when they're hungry. Some parenting books buy this whopper, hook, line, and sinker, suggesting that a baby be fed "on demand." This is hardly a good way to prepare a baby for the real world, where the only things available "on demand" are cable movies, usually dumbass shit like "Did You Hear About the Morgans?" There are plenty of other reasons that a baby cries besides hunger. She might be sad about something that happened to her recently, such as that nasty business with the sprinkler. Even more likely, she is trying to tell you something, for example, that she is tired of seeing you so much. This might be your cue to have dinner out or catch a basketball game.

3. Is My Baby Stimulated Enough? During the past few decades, early-development "experts" have stressed the importance of so-called "enrichment activities": reading to babies, singing to them, even talking to them. We are now finding that these activities, in addition to being excruciating for the parent, may actually be harmful to the baby, lengthening her attention span to the point where she wil, be unable to enjoy most popular entertainment. Fortunately, there's a simple way to reverse this damage, using a system I call FIT (Facebook, iPhone, TV). By exposing your baby to these three thigns for as many hours as possible. You'll insure that she'll be well equiped for a lifetime of pointless multitasking. Quick test: Put your hands in front of your eyes and play peekaboo with your baby, If she ignores you and picks up your phone, reward her with her favorite app.

And that's the Good Enough Baby Checklist, Actually, there are seven more items on the list, but let's not be slave drivers about this.

One final caveat. Some parents may be under the impression that I wrote 'The Good Enough Baby" in order to provide a shortcut for people who don't take the job of parenting seriously. Nothing could be further from my intention. As a pediatrician, I always remind parents: When you have a baby, you are bringing a human being into this world, and you are responsible for that human being for the next five or six years.

THE NEW YORKER, SEPTEMBER 27, 2010

Better to love amiss than nothing to have loved
("Struggles of Conscience" by George Crabbe)

I wish to give no offense at all to all the ladies present and listening when I say that to me the most chilling description that can be given of any woman is that she is house proud.

The phrase that you often hear applied to such a lady: Oh she keeps the house spotless. You could eat off her floor.

But why I am particularly tender on this point because I lost a very dear friend because of a house-proud woman. A friend of mine called George Crampton, who was married to a house-proud lady.

But when I say house-proud. I mean REALLY house-proud.

I only visited him once and I should have been warned at the very moment when he opened the door to me.

Have you ever seen a house that is run by a house-proud lady?

The SHINE on everything.

We went in the kitchen. It was IMMACULATE. You could have performed a SURGICAL operation in there.

I said, "How do you KEEP it like this?"

And she said, "I have a system."

And I said, "What system?"

George said, "We have all our meals OUT."

But you see, the house-proudness extends beyond mere CLEANLINESS. It goes to decorating EVERYTHING that could possibly be decorated. Do you understand what I mean?

You know that little light inside the fridge? She had a frilly lampshade.

You know that round window on the washing machine? Chintz curtains.

But the cleanliness thing was the paramount one. George nudged me as we went through the hall. There was a cuckoo clock. She'd laid a sheet of newspaper under it.

The agony only really started, though, when we went in the sitting room. And I embarked on some anecdotes. I was in the middle of it when I suddenly noticed George making frantic signals.

Without being conscious of it I had lit a cigarette.

Her voice came, "Are you smoking, Mr. Norden?"

I said, "No, it's the cigarette actually."

She said, "What do you intend to do with the ASH?"

I said, "Well, I was thinking of swallowing it."

She said, "Please don't go to any trouble. Do what George does. Put it in the roadway."

The evening seemed interminable. And I think the final evidence of George's servitude to this kind of thing came as he was bidding my good night. Because he turned to his wife and he said, "Darling, have you cleaned the sink for the night?"

And she said, "Yes. Why?"

He said, "Nothing. I just fancied a glass of water. Never mind. It will do in the morning."

Three days later he hanged himself. I couldn't blame him. There really was NOTHING for him to live for.

I only rejoiced that he had a sort of posthumous victory. Because the room in which he hanged himself was the living room.

He stands for me ever as an example of a quotation, which in the words of George Crabbe, if I may change it a little, render it as sort of dressed Crabbe.

He stands an example of better to love a mess than NOTHING to have lived.

Denis Norden
670627

I have a bunch of small, rough bumps on my arms and legs. What are they, and how can I get rid of them?

Maybe they look like goose bumps - or the skin of a plucked chicken. Perhaps they're raised and feel a little bit like sandpaper.

These may be the signs of keratosis pilaris, a common skin condition that can cause tiny, painless bumps to appear on the upper arms, thighs and buttocks, said Dr. Amy Freeman, a dermatologist in Millburn, N.J.

The bumps are typically flesh-colored, but they might look red or pink on lighter skin tones and brown or black on darker skin.

While their appearance can be "distressing," Dr. Freeman said, keratosis pilaris is harmless and often goes away on its own. However, some people can deal with flare-ups for their entire lives.

Keratosis pilaris happens when keratin - a protein involved in forming hair, skin and nails builds up and, along with dead skin cells, clogs hair follicles, Dr. Freeman said.

An estimated 40 percent of adults and 50 to 80 percent of teenagers have keratosis pilaris. Dermatologists aren't sure exactly why some people develop it.

One theory is that the condition is caused by a genetic mutation that interferes with the skin's ability to moisturize itself naturally, said Dr. Shari Lipner, a dermatologist at Weill Cornell Medicine in New York City. The mutation may make you more prone to dry skin, which makes keratosis pilaris worse.

People who have eczema, diabetes or close blood relatives with keratosis pilaris are more prone to the condition, Dr. Lipner said. The same is true for people with asthma, allergies or excess body weight, according to the American Academy of Dermatology.

Because dry skin worsens keratosis pilaris, you may have more flare-ups during the winter. or if you live in a dry climate said Dr. Leslie Baumann, a dermatologist in Miami.

Preventing dry skin is one of the best ways to reduce flare-ups and generally improve the appearance of keratosis pilaris, Dr. Baumann said.

Products that contain emollients (moisturizers) and keratolytic agents (a class of medications like salicylic acid, lactic acid and urea that remove dead skin cells and soften the keratin that clogs pores) are most effective, Dr. Freeman said.

A convenient option is to choose an over-the-counter moisturizing lotion that contains a keratolytic agent, Dr. Lipner said. The academy also recommends products with other keratolytics like glycolic acid and retinol.

They'll be most effective if you apply them right after showering when your skin is damp, she added. Doing so helps seal some of the moisture into your skin.

Dr. Lipner suggested avoiding anything that might irritate your skin, such as using an abrasive body scrub or scratching or picking at the bumps. However, the academy says you can gently use a loofah or washcloth to slough off dead skin cells. It's also best to avoid products with fragrances and oils, Dr. Lipner said.

During a flare-up, Dr. Freeman said, you should use a moisturizer with a keratolytic agent a few
times a day for a couple of months. Once the condition improves, you can taper down to a few times a week.

But you should still moisturize every day, she said; you just don't need a keratolytic product once the flare-up is under control.

If your skin is still bumpy and rough after using at-home products for a few months and you're bothered by how it looks, Dr. Lipner suggested seeing a dermatologist.

Erica Sweeney

Imagine dropping your phone in a reservoir while taking a selfie. Just let it go, and get a replacement, right? No. When this happened to a government official in India, he ordered the reservoir drained. It took three days to pump out close to 500,000 gallons of water. The food inspector claimed the phone contains sensitive government information, but when it was found, surprise, it no longer worked, and the official ended up getting suspended.