Are ‘self-care days’ a cure-all or just a temporary fix?

Forget once-a-month bubble baths—instead, new research shines a light on smaller daily acts of self-care.

A survey of 2,000 nationally representative Americans found more than half (52%) agree that “self-care days” are only temporary fixes compared to practicing smaller daily habits.

When it comes to what self-care is, 64% of U.S. adults think of it holistically, as balancing all aspects of health or creating habits that contribute to overall well-being.

While eight in 10 respondents say practicing daily self-care habits is a priority, many (41%) have let them falter over the past year.

And more than two in five (44%) believe it is difficult to balance all aspects of their health.

One-quarter of all respondents (24%) even claimed they don’t have time for self-care on a regular basis.

Those struggling to prioritize self-care cite being too preoccupied with household chores and responsibilities (56%) caring for their family (49%) and work (47%).

Mothers in particular are having an even harder time, with 50% of those surveyed agreeing that, over the past year, they have let their self-care habits fall behind.

The survey, commissioned by Medifast, health and wellness company behind the habit-based and coach-guided program OPTAVIA, also found that three out of five U.S. adults said it’s important to have support from others when it comes to prioritizing self-care (63%).



“Consumers today have an abundance of information and options contrasted by little time and lack of support. People need simple yet comprehensive solutions that help them make a healthy lifestyle second nature, whether they are struggling to manage their weight or find time for healthy motion,” said Dan Chard, chairman and CEO of Medifast. “Approaches that are scientifically designed, backed by experts and offer the support of a community will resonate as people continue to seek out realistic ways to prioritize their health and wellbeing.”

A survey of 2,000 nationally representative Americans found more than half (52%) agree that “self-care days” are only temporary fixes compared to practicing smaller daily habits.



Yet, life happens. Respondents said they were likely to acknowledge a need for more “self-care” time when feeling overwhelmed (41%), tired for an extended period of time (39%) or easily irritable (38%).

They feel forced to prioritize self-care when recovering from an illness (34%) or facing financial hardship (25%).

And it isn’t just major events, others prioritize self-care more when facing pressure at work (20%), after a romantic relationship change (19%) or even after a disagreement with a loved one (18%).

Respondents said they were likely to acknowledge a need for more “self-care” time when feeling overwhelmed (41%), tired for an extended period of time (39%) or easily irritable (38%).

Overall, 36% of those surveyed are making it a top or high priority to practice self-care every day, like staying hydrated (48%), having a positive mindset (46%), going outside (43%) and getting quality sleep (36%).

Respondents also cited areas in which they need the most care, including exercise (33%), sleep (28%) and their mental and emotional health (27%).

The survey found that three out of five U.S. adults said it’s important to have support from others when it comes to prioritizing self-care (63%).

While most (61%) acknowledge that it’s okay to misstep when trying to create healthy habits, like having an unhealthy snack or skipping exercise for a day, 35% said they’d feel discouraged or ultimately give up if they fell off track.

“In a fast-paced world, many expect instant gratification and are focused on quick fixes, which leaves them feeling discouraged when they don’t experience immediate results,” said Satya Jonnalagadda, Ph.D., MBA, RDN, vice president of scientific and clinical affairs at Medifast. “Staying persistent and motivated can be difficult, so it’s not surprising that people tend to be more successful in reaching their health goals when they have the support of a coach and community.”

https://nypost.com/2023/09/22/are-self- ... orary-fix/

[Misstee]

Michigan lighthouse launches messages in bottles offering free stays
By Ben Hooper


The White Shoal Light, the tallest lighthouse on Lake Michigan, announced a contest featuring four messages in bottles thrown into the Great Lakes. Each bottle contains a different offer for a free stay at the historic lighthouse. Photo courtesy of the White Shoal Light Historical Preservation Society




Sept. 22 (UPI) -- The caretakers of a historic Michigan lighthouse are offering free stays at the landmark in an unusual contest involving messages in bottles tossed into the Great Lakes.

The White Shoal Light Historical Preservation Society announced the "message in a bottle contest" as part of the lighthouse's 113th anniversary celebrations.

The offshore lighthouse, located about 20 miles west of the Mackinac Bridge in Lake Michigan, is the tallest lighthouse on the Great Lakes.

Each of the four messages in bottles, which were dropped into the Mackinac Straits, contains a message from one of four descendants of longtime lightkeeper George Keller. The messages feature various offers for a free stay for one, two or up to five people.

The message in a bottle contest pays tribute to the Armistice Day Blizzard of November 1940, in which Keller and a colleague threw a message in a bottle into the water in case they did not survive the storm.

The men survived the storm, and their message was found a few weeks later by fisherman near Gros Cap, Mich.

"We made the connection with bringing these four family members together that it would be really cool to commemorate that story," Jill Ore, head lighthouse keeper for White Shoal, told MLive.

Largest cemetery ever discovered in Gaza and rare lead sarcophogi found

Archaeologists say they have discovered dozens of ancient graves including two rare sarcophagi made of lead in an ancient cemetery in the Gaza Strip

by Issam Dawan



GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip -- Palestinian workers in the Gaza Strip have found dozens of ancient graves, including two sarcophagi made of lead, in a Roman-era cemetery — a site dating back some 2,000 years that archaeologists describe as the largest cemetery discovered in Gaza.

Workers came upon the site last year during the construction of an Egyptian-funded housing project near Jabaliya, in the northern Gaza Strip. Since then, crews have worked to excavate the 2,700-square-meter (2/3 acre) site with the support of French experts.

Now, what was once an inconspicuous construction lot — surrounded by a grove of nondescript apartment buildings — has become a gold mine for archaeologists looking to understand more about the Gaza Strip.

Gaza, a coastal enclave home to some 2.3 million people, has a rich history stemming from its location on ancient trade routes between Egypt and the Levant. But a number of factors — Israeli occupation, Hamas’ 16-year takeover of the territory and rapid urban growth — have conspired to endanger many of the besieged strip’s archaeological treasures.

Against this backdrop, the discovery of 60 graves at the site in January marked a major finding, archaeologists say. That number has swelled to 135.

Rene Elter, a French archaeologist leading the dig, said researchers have studied over 100 of the graves.

“All of these tombs have almost already been excavated and have revealed a huge amount of information about the cultural material and also about the state of health of the population and the pathologies from which this population may have suffered,” said Elter, the head of archaeology for ”Intiqal," a program managed by the French nonprofit Première Urgence Internationale.

Elter pointed to the sarcophagi made of lead — one featuring ornate grape leaves, the other with images of dolphins — as exceptional finds.

“The discovery of lead sarcophagi here is a first for Gaza,” he said.

Given the rarity of the lead tombs, Palestinian archaeologists like Fadel Al-Otul suspect that social elites are buried there. Al-Otul said the cemetery probably used to be located in a city — Romans used to place cemeteries near city centers.

Alongside the sarcophagi, Elter’s team is restoring unearthed skeletons and piecing together shards of clay jars.

The skeletons discovered at the site will be sent out of Gaza for additional analysis, according to Al-Otul. The remains are set to return to the Hamas-led Ministry of Antiquities and Tourism.

Elter said the territory needs a dedicated team to oversee archaeological activity in Gaza.

“The Gazans deserve to tell their stories,” he said. “Gaza boasts a plethora of potential archaeological sites, but monitoring each one, given the rapid pace of development, is no small feat."

[johngriffen]

I sometimes get REALLY DEPRESSED reviewing the news these days.
It's always about a global pandemic threatening life as we know it,
protests around the world, stupid politicians, natural disasters,
or some other really bad story.
ENOUGH IS ENOUGH

Welcome to The mobi weekly news magazine
IN OTHER NEWS
MONDAY SEPTEMBER 25
What is it?
Here is your chance to become an "ACE REPORTER" for our weekly news magazine.
It is your job to fine weird, funny or "good feel" stories from around the world and share them with our readers in our weekly magazine

How do you play?
Just post a story that you have come across that made you smile, laugh, feel good...
BUT NOTHING DEPRESSING

EXAMPLE POST

​Naked sunbather chases wild boar through park after it steals his laptop bag

A naked sunbather was seen chasing wild boar through a park after it stole his laptop bag.
Amusing photographs from Germany show the man running after the animal to try and claim the plastic bag back.
But the cheeky boar and its two piglets appear to be too quick for the sunbather, who can't keep up with their speedy little trotters.
As the incident unfolds, groups of friends and family sat on the grass watch on and laugh.
Heads are seen turning in surprise and amusement in the hilarious photographs.
The incident happened at Teufelssee Lake - a bathing spot in the Grunwell Forest in Berlin, Germany.

Rules:
Each Edition of IN OTHER NEWS will be open for 7 days...
You can post as many stories as you like, but you will only get paid for One Story in any 24 hour period
So in other words, you can only earn WRZ$ once a day.
Each news day will start when I post announcing it
OR at:
9:00 AM CHICAGO TIME (UTC -6)
3:00 PM GMT (UTC -0)
on those days I space out and forget to post or can't due to Real Life
Stories may be accompanied with images - but No big images, please! 800x800 pixels wide maximum
Videos are allowed, but please keep them short, and post a short summary for those that don't like to click on videos
No Duplicate stories - Where a post has been edited resulting in duplicates, then the last one in time gets disallowed.
And please limit this to reasonably family friendly stories

Reward:
Each news story posted that I feel is acceptable (must be a real story, too few words or simply a headline are not considered acceptable) will earn you 50 WRZ$
If you post multiple stories on any given day, you will only earn 50 WRZ$ for the first story of the Day
All payments will be made at THE END of the weekly news cycle.
Special Bonus - Each week I will award "The Pulitzer Prize" for the best story of the week
The weekly winner of the "The Pulitzer Prize" will receive a 100 WRZ$ bonus
It's just my personal opinion, so my judgement is final

So help bring GOOD news to the members of mobi, and join our reporting team...

IN OTHER NEWS



NOTE: THE RECAP AND REWARDS WILL BE DONE LATER

[Fatima99]

11-Year-Old Hero Reunites Veteran With His Lost Support Dog and We Couldn't Be Happier



For many of us, it's hard to imagine life without our pets. But some people's lives can depend on their precious pooches. Nobody knows this better than 55-year-old veteran David Barlet of Medina County, Ohio. When he lost his support dog, Gunter, he wasn't just heartbroken—he was in potential danger.

Toward the end of his 33-year career in the U.S. Army, Barlet was diagnosed with epilepsy. That's when he learned German shorthaired pointers like Gunter can be trained as seizure alert dogs, Cleveland's WJW reports. These dogs are able to alert their owner before a seizure starts and guide them to a safe landing space like a bed or a couch so they don't collapse.

He and Gunter have a special bond. "I don't know if I've ever been closer with another animal in my life," Barlet told the TV station.

But that bond was threatened when Gunter went missing over this past Fourth of July weekend. On July 3, Barlet's wife had Gunter on a leash outside while neighbors celebrated the holiday with fireworks. Frightened by the noise, Gunter overpowered her, knocking her down as he ran off into the night.

The Barlets spent the coming days searching for their dog and hanging missing posters. Strangers helped by sharing the posters on social media.

"We tried to hold it together around people, but in the evening time when it was just us, the house was so full of emotion, between him being missing and the support we saw from the community," Barlet told WJW.

Two days after Gunter ran away, a local 11-year-old boy heard whimpering in a nearby wooded area. After enlisting his parents to help investigate, the family discovered the missing dog. Gunter's leash was tangled in a small tree, meaning he had likely gone those two days without food or water.

Barlet's reunion with Gunter was like something out of a movie. Once he stepped out of his car, the beloved companion bolted straight toward his owner. Despite the conditions, Gunter was thankfully in good health, according to Barlet.

Both the Barlets and the surrounding community have expressed deep gratitude toward the young boy for reuniting the veteran with his lost dog. The police chief of Medina as well as pet owners on social media have sung their praises for the child's good deed.

"Someone that he didn't even know was hurting and was in need, and so he did that," Barlet told WJW. "I tell you I can hardly see the kid without really getting emotional, he's very, very special to us."

[ozswede]

Septembare! 1,300 naked swimmers brave chilly North Sea at sunrise for the 11th annual North East Skinny Dip to mark the Autumn Equinox

Over a thousand swimmers stripped off to brave the chilly waters of the of the North Sea in Northumberland for the 11th annual North East Skinny Dip to mark the Autumn Equinox.


The naked participants could be seen running wild and free on the beach

Naked participants of all ages could be seen frolicking on the beach in Druridge Bay on Sunday morning for the popular event, and embracing the freedom of baring it all.

Swimmers were seen wearing whimsical wigs, Hawaiian garlands or just a wooly hat as they took a dip in the icy waters at sunrise.


A group of swimmers wore brightly-coloured, eccentric wigs to join in the fun at the beach

As the waves rolled in, participants were seen running wild towards the sea as they held hands and skipped with joy.

It was the 11th annual gathering of skinny dippers in an event that has raised more than £100,000 for Mind, a mental health charity, since 2012.

Swimmers with tattoos on parts of their bodies which would ordinarily be concealed by their clothes, showed off their markings.


Participants got to show of their tattoos in all their glory

The event sees people from across the country take part in the much anticipated event.

Friends could be seen taking photos of each other and posing, with a mesmerising backdrop with bright amber hues in the sky as the first golden rays of the sun emerged at sunrise.

Aerial photos show the astonishing number of naked swimmers forming a nude-coloured sea of their own, jumping with joy and walking along the beach in long chains as participants held hands.


Swimmers of all ages and from across the country made it to Druridge Bay to take a skinny dip in the icy waters

Organisers of the event, Tyneside Mind, described the event as 'a celebration of life! Of nature! And of our own, unique, physical bodies!'

While proceeds from the event will go towards improving local mental health services, they also said that the initiative is about 'coming together, supporting each other and giving yourself a fun, fabulous wellbeing re-boot'.

Organisers posted on a JustGiving page: 'Everyone is friendly and welcoming to ensure new dippers feel as confident as those who have been coming for years, creating an amazing atmosphere of togetherness and being at one with nature'.

They added: 'Every 'body' is welcome'.

[lush]

Women Are Getting ‘Barbie Botox’ for Longer, Doll-Like Necks
082223*

The hottest cosmetic trend on TikTok these days is ‘Barbie Botox’, a procedure in which botox is injected into the trapezius muscles in order to make the neck look longer and more slender.

The Barbie Botox procedure was originally devised as a way to relax the severely overworked trapezius muscles which could cause painful neck tension and even migraines, but one of its side effects was purely cosmetic. When the neurotoxin is injected into each trapezius muscle at the bottom of the neck, it cuts the connection to the nerve, temporarily paralyzing the muscle. Over time, this causes the trapezius to shrink, which makes the person’s neck look longer, and more slender, kind of like that of a plastic doll, hence the name…


Photo: Isabelle Lux/Instagram

“It came from the idea that you would look more like a Barbie when you get it done, which I don’t think is a bad thing,” TikTok influencer Isabelle Lux,, who had the procedure done for a wedding, told CNN. “It elongates the neck, slims the shoulders, and creates a very delicate physique when it’s done properly.”

A 1-month reveal photo posted by Lux went viral a while ago, kickstarting a Barbie Botox trend on TikTok, and while the difference is definitely visible, the influencer clarifies that the procedure is not without risk, so people shouldn’t just rush into it. She had to deal with pain and stiffness in her back and shoulders and the visual effect of the procedure doesn’t occur overnight. Apparently, it takes two weeks to see noticeable results and two months for the full effects to be visible.



“I was actually quite scared,” Lux said. “Once (Botox) is in, there’s nothing you can do to reverse it. I think that you need to go to a surgeon or a medical doctor. If you’re not able to get it done at the right place, I would say it’s honestly not worth it.”

The amount of botox injected into the trapezius muscles depends on the size of the muscles, but it usually varies between 40 and 75 units of neurotoxin. The effects usually last between four and six months. The cost of the procedure depends on the amount of botox required by the patient, with prices starting at around $200 for 20 units of neurotoxin. In Isabelle Lux’s case, the treatment cost a reported $1,200.



This is only the latest cosmetic procedure to achieve trend status. We recently wrote about the increasingly popular cosmetic voice surgery trend, Russia’s wavy lips fad, and the disturbing Snapchat dysmorphia.

Sheep wander into greenhouse, eat 600 pounds of marijuana plants

A flock of sheep found their way into a greenhouse in Greece and ate more than 600 pounds of marijuana plants being cultivated for medical use.

Yiannis Bourounis, owner of the greenhouse in Magnesia, said his crop had already been damaged by heat and recent floods when a flock of sheep managed to enter the greenhouse and feast on the remaining cannabis plants.

He estimated the sheep munched their way through more than 600 pounds of plants.

Bourounis told thenewspaper.gr that the sheep were "jumping higher than goats" after eating their ill-begotten greenery.

Greece legalized medical marijuana in 2017, and the country opened its first cannabis production plant earlier this year.

[rflash8]

Clams Ruled This Town Until the Crabs Moved In

Goro, on the Adriatic Sea, is famous for its clams — essential for the beloved spaghetti alle vongole. But an infestation of crabs is threatening the town’s cash crop.


Massimo Genari, left, and other fishermen this month checking out how many blue crabs they pulled from the lagoon in Goro, Italy, a town on the Adriatic Sea.


Before dawn in Goro, on the Adriatic Sea, Massimo Genari drove by the central roundabout, with its sculpture of two concrete clams in a net, and under a billboard of a mollusk donning a crimson royal crown. Wearing waders, he boarded his boat and motored to the lagoon with scores of other fishermen to rake the clam gardens that for decades have transformed this sleepy Italian village off the Po River Delta into a bivalve boomtown.

As the sun rose, Mr. Genari, a leader of the local fishing cooperative, poured his first haul of clams into the basin of a metal sorting machine. The shells clinked like coins falling from a slot machine. But instead of bushels of treasure, he looked with horror at the remains of a massacre, with the guilty parties — marauding armies of invasive blue crabs — caught blue-and-orange-handed as they scurried over the eviscerated bodies of their victims.

“Opened, opened, opened,” Mr. Genari said, as he sifted through shells and avoided the murderous crabs snapping at his fingers. The killers had, he said, laid waste to the baby clams. “Another two months, and that’s it. The clams will be gone.”

Goro’s fishermen, swamped by the insatiable blue crab, are trying to save not only their local cash crop — the meaty verace clam they first imported from the Philippines in the 1980s — but also a good portion of Italy’s beloved spaghetti alle vongole that is made with them.


Clams being processed before being packed at Co.Pe.Go, the largest clam farmers cooperative in Goro

“We will lose our identity,” said Arianna Zucconelli, 44, a local wholesale fish buyer, who said that Italy without clam sauce would be a much blander place, and that Goro without clams would be a much poorer one. “This town is built on clams,” she said. “Eighty percent of the town won’t have an income.”

Experts aren’t sure how or exactly when the alien crabs first arrived from North America. Some speculate that crab larvae arrived decades ago in cargo ships. Around Goro, years of droughts allowed seawater to seep further into the Po River’s estuaries, making for more brackish pools preferred by the crabs.

Then floods this spring in the Emilia-Romagna region, where Goro is, washed them into the lagoon, where the warm summer water increased the blue crabs’ metabolism and, free of natural predators, they found an all-you-can-eat buffet of local crabs, mussels, oysters and the prized clams.

“The table,” said Eduardo Turolla, a local mollusk scientist, “was set.”

And the battle joined. Around Mr. Genari’s boat, an armada trawls for the blue crabs, pulling what he estimated to be about 10 tons of them daily from the lagoon, though they have also amassed across Italy’s east and west coasts. He pointed out the spongelike pads teeming with eggs on the bellies of females and the way the males held the claws of dismembered crabs in their clutches. He told stories of children rushed from the neighboring beaches to the emergency room with clawed fingers and toes.

“Either they survive,” he said. “Or we survive.”

The Italian government has mobilized a full-scale “if you can’t beat ’em, eat ’em” campaign. Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni served up a platter of cooked blue crabs, as shown in a picture taken by her brother-in-law, Francesco Lollobrigida, the country’s agriculture minister, who recently visited Goro and promised aid. The minister — perhaps best known for warning about “ethnic replacement” of the Italian people, and not its marine life — also posted a video of himself holding a live crab next to a pot and admiring its “optimal” meat.

Supermarkets around the country are promoting them. (“Blue Crab: A Recipe to Save the Seas!”) Seafood companies are trying to export them.

“In particular, to the U.S. market,” said Carlotta Santolini, a founder of Mariscadoras, which has exported containers of blue crabs to a distributor in Miami. She said Mr. Lollobrigida called her to strategize and invited her to promote Italy’s blue crabs at a frozen seafood exposition next month in Spain. But she acknowledged the toughest market may be the domestic one.

“A signora that goes to the restaurant,” Luca Pavani, 56, said after a morning of hunting crabs, “she can’t just start eating with her hands.”

Mr. Genari noted that they were no picnic to prepare either.

“The first time I brought them home to my companion to cook, she was interested and happy to do it,” he said. “The second time, she threw it at my head.”

In the Chesapeake Bay, Marylanders hammer and rip and douse crabs in Old Bay seasoned salt. But Italians, resistant to culinary novelty and mindful of table manners, are trying to incorporate them into the usual frying pan.

At the Locanda Ferrari restaurant, where diners slurped up plates of spaghetti alle vongole and compared notes on their favorite places for eel, Paola Ferrari, 61, scissored the crabs and dumped them in a pan of tomatoes, onions and herbs.

“They don’t really” order it, she said.


Paola Ferrari preparing spaghetti alle vongole in her restaurant in Goro.



Tiziano Ferrari, 41, in sunglasses, and other fishermen discussing the topic of the moment in Goro: the marauding crabs.

At a restaurant across from the fish market, the crabs were not even on offer, though a drawing above the display case depicted crabs being devoured by an octopus and a sharp-beaked curlew.

“Nature will always find a solution,” it read.

“I see no solution,” said Mr. Turolla, the expert.

In the surrounding streets, residents spoke fondly of the easy money of the clam days. “It was like going to the A.T.M.,” Alessandro Milani, 58, said as he built a crab trap. At the Bar dell’Angolo, fishermen drank bottomless Aperols, cursed the crabs and told horror stories about crab attacks on colleagues wading in the shallow water.

“One of them stabbed right through her boots,” recounted Giorgio Bugnoli, 50.

“Who?” his friends asked aghast.

“Luisa!” he said.

Hundreds of blue tubs filled with blue crabs arrived for sorting at Mr. Genari’s cooperative, for either sale or disposal. An enormous aluminum pan used to cook 1,300 pounds of clams for spaghetti alle vongole during the annual clam festival rested on heaps of black plastic nets. The fishermen hope these nets will protect future crops of clams, though they say the crabs have climbed over, dug under and cut through barriers in the past.

The rejected crabs ended up back at the port, which resounded with the sound of constant typing, as thousands of crabs clicked over one another. A forklift rolled over amputated claws and dumped crate after crate of fly-swarmed crabs into a green container labeled: “Material Category 3. Not Destined for Human Consumption.” A truck loaded the writhing freight for delivery to an incinerator up north. More boats, and more blue tubs, came in.

“In the two months we have been fighting the crabs,” Mr. Genari said, “it is like we have done nothing.”

At 3:30 p.m. in the nearby fish market, a siren announced the beginning of the fish auction. Workers loaded dozens of blue tubs on a white conveyor belt that appeared in front of buyers eating cherry ices on bleachers.

The first crabs were small and had no takers.

“No one wants crabs,” one of the buyers said.

The auctioneer, Fabio Bugnoli, 46, wore a thick blue rubber glove and picked up chains of clinging crabs to demonstrate their size and vim. (“They got me twice,” he said, showing off the marks on his thumb.) One buyer who supplied Chinese neighborhoods bought hundreds. Others who supplied restaurants enticed by the prospect of extreme profit margins bought bigger crabs. The prices were so low, the fishermen said, that they barely covered the cost of gasoline or the crab incinerations.

But Ms. Zucconelli, the buyer, suggested Italians might yet develop a taste for crab. She said her mother had found a way to cook them in a red sauce.

“They’re good and sweet. They’re great fried,” she said. “Then again, a slipper is good fried.”


“This town is built on clams,” a local wholesale fish buyer said.

NASA May Have Just Cracked the Code for Replacing Lithium in Batteries: ‘Double or even triple the energy’

Sep 25, 2023


NASA researchers John Connell and Yi Lin (seated) from SABERS. credit NASA

Along with routinely launching robots across the final frontier, NASA is also involved in sustainable aviation research, and this division may have cracked the code to creating a lighter, safer battery back with multiple times more discharge power than lithium-ion batteries.

Lithium-ion batteries, the current industry standard for electric vehicles, contain liquids that make them vulnerable to overheating, fire, and loss of charge over time. By contrast, NASA’s SABERS (Solid-state Architecture Batteries for Enhanced Rechargeability and Safety) project is developing experimental solid-state battery packs that do not suffer from these drawbacks.

SABERS receives funding from NASA’s Convergent Aeronautics Solutions project, which is designed to investigate certain technologies to solve aviation’s biggest challenges: in this case, battery-powered flight.

Carbon from air travel equates to around 2% of all global greenhouse gas emissions. Batteries are hypothesized as a potential ameliorating solution to emissions-heavy jet fuel.

During the past year, SABERS’ solid-state batteries have been honed to produce a discharge rate much higher than any other example on the market by a factor of 10—and then again by a factor of 5.

Inside the battery, sulfur and selenium cells stacked directly on top of one another without casings allow for greater weight savings. Along with the cells themselves, multiple batteries can be stacked without any separation between them.

“Not only does this design eliminate 30 to 40 percent of the battery’s weight, it also allows us to double or even triple the energy it can store, far exceeding the capabilities of lithium-ion batteries that are considered to be the state of the art,” said Rocco Viggiano, principal investigator for SABERS at NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland.

It has so far allowed the SABERS team to power objects at 500 watt-hours per kilogram–double that of an electric car.

This year, the main objective for SABERS was to show the battery’s properties meet its energy and safety targets while also demonstrating it can safely operate under realistic conditions and at maximum power, NASA writes.

Partnering with Georgia Tech, SABERS has been able to use different methodologies in their work which has so far benefitted the batteries.

“Georgia Tech has a big focus on micromechanics of how the cell changes during operation. That helped us look at the pressures inside the battery, which then helped us improve the battery even more,” said Viggiano.

“It also led us to understand from a practical standpoint how to manufacture a cell like this, and it led us to some other improved design configurations,” said Viggiano.

Blue light from phones, tablets and TVs may induce early puberty: study


Excessive screen time may be taking more from children than their attention.


Experimental setup of room in study: "Is blue light exposure a cause of precocious puberty in male rats?"


For the first time, researchers in Turkey have shown that blue light exposure can speed up the onset of puberty in male rats, demonstrating a potential link between smart device screens and early childhood development.

A joint team from Gazi University and Bilkent City Hospital in Ankara presented their work at the 61st Annual European Society for Paediatric Endocrinology Meeting in The Hague, as well as published recently in Frontiers in Endocrinology.

The new findings follow their previous study on blue light exposure in female rats, where early puberty was also observed.

“For the first time, we found a direct relationship between blue light exposure and early puberty in male rats,” said lead researcher Dr. Aylin Kılınç Uğurlu, of Bikent City Hospital. “Our findings align with our previous work on female rats, which also showed similar effects, thereby providing a more comprehensive view of how blue light may influence puberty both male and female rats.”

Eighteen male rats, aged 21 days old, were divided evenly into three groups — two of which were assigned either six or 12 hours of blue light exposure, while a third, the control group, maintained a 12-hour light-dark cycle with no blue light exposure from devices.

Researchers saw the first signs of puberty “significantly earlier” in male rats exposed to blue light, compared to the control group.

“I want to emphasize that this is a rat study and direct results cannot be interpreted for humans. However, we provide an experimental foundation to further investigate the health consequences of ever-increasing screen time in modern society,” Uğurlu noted in a news release.

The researchers hope to continue the current study on blue light exposure in rats to better “understand its long-term effects on reproductive organ damage and fertility,” Uğurlu said. “Ultimately, this research could lead to preventative measures and contribute to the ongoing discourse on how modern lifestyles affect physiological development and long-term health.”

In a world that revolves around access to smart devices, experts have become increasingly concerned about the effects of this now ubiquitous technology — especially the impact on youth.

Blue light is already well-known to disrupt the circadian rhythm by suppressing the production of the sleep hormone melatonin, thus delaying sleep onset and encouraging groggier days. For teenagers in particular a lack of sleep can manifest as academic struggles and more emotional troubles. The results suggest that young people need more routine and intervention strategies surrounding the use of smart devices.

https://nypost.com/2023/09/25/blue-ligh ... rty-study/

[PennySerenade]

Rescue Cat with Rare Seizure Disorder Adopted by Person with Epilepsy After 2 Years at Shelter



Annie is done waiting for tomorrow; after over two years in a New York shelter, the rescue cat with a rare seizure disorder is home.

In June 2021, Annie, a loving black cat, arrived at the Dutchess County SPCA (DCSPCA).

"Annie was brought to us by a healthcare worker for an owner who was suffering from dementia," Lynne Meloccaro, DCSPCA's executive director, tells PEOPLE.

It wasn't until September 2023, after two years and two months of patient waiting, that Annie found her forever home.

Obstacles unfortunately stood in the way of Annie's adoption. Shortly after Annie arrived at DCSPCA, the New York shelter observed that the cat was struggling with health issues.

"Because she was undiagnosed when she arrived, it took some time for us to learn what the problem was and how to treat it. We knew she had not been well cared for because of her owner's illness. So we did what we do with all our special needs cats — we rolled up our sleeves and got to work to figure out the best treatment plan for her," Meloccaro says.

"We also removed her from the shelter environment and put her in a quiet and stable foster home where she could have the time and space to recover."

Based on their exams and observations from Annie's foster home, where the cat spent eight months, DCSPCA discovered that Annie had feline hyperesthesia. This rare disorder causes seizures in some cats, including Annie.



"If untreated, her condition will manifest as fits of severe anxiety and self-mutilation. She will be fine one moment, and then the next, suddenly turn around and bite her own tail. Her tail was quite chewed up when she first arrived. During these seizures, she can't be touched and comforted because of agitated behavior she can't control, and that's heartbreaking because she is clearly terrified when these fits occur," Meloccaro explains.

DCSPCA put Annie on anti-seizure medication after diagnosing her, and the cat has responded well to the treatment. Since starting her medication, Annie's seizures have "dramatically abated," and her tail has healed.

"She will need medication for the rest of her life," DCSPCA's executive director adds of Annie.

Unfortunately, Annie's additional needs seemed to cause many potential adopters to overlook her when visiting the shelter.

"The average adopter might ask, 'Why should they consider a cat like Annie when there are so many other cats available without any issues?' That's why many shelters would not even let a cat like Annie stay for as long as she did, but we always try to do all we can to find that special adopter who is willing to give a home to a special needs cat, even if it takes two years." Meloccaro says.

For Annie, it was worth the wait. In September, she found an adopter who deeply understood the cat's seizure disorder, a loving individual named Renee, who has epilepsy from Sturge-Weber Syndrome — a rare vascular disorder.

"Renee manages a health condition of their own that allows them to understand that illness does not define the living being. Their natural empathy for Annie is apparent. From Annie's point of view, Renee must seem like they dropped from heaven to be Annie's human," Meloccaro says of the cat's adopter.

Renee learned about Annie after reading an article about the cat's 2-year wait for a home.

"I wasn’t intimidated by her feline hyperesthesia like some other cat owners due to the fact that I have had many elderly, special needs cats in the past. To hear that a kitty had to endure two years without a permanent home was awful, and I was bound and determined to remedy that. As someone with a rare condition myself — Sturge-Weber Syndrome — I know the unknown can be scary, but I was ready to face it with her!" Renee shares.

Annie has been renamed Tapenade since moving into Renee's home, where the feline is gradually adjusting to adopted life.



"She’s a bit timid on the surface, but once she gets comfortable with her environment, she’s incredibly curious and playful. Not only that, but she loves love and has been more than happy to simply cuddle!" Renee says.

Tapenade has "carved out" a comfy space by the window and is getting to know her new cat siblings and Renee.

"Focal seizures are a major part of everyday life for me, so when I heard that Tapenade had to suffer that, it was heartbreaking. The experience is scary to humans, so I can only imagine how scary it would be to a kitty," the cat owner shares.

DCSPCA is thrilled that Annie/Tapenade has found an empathic and supportive home.

"When an adoption like this happens with an animal like Annie, who has been here for a long time and whose chances to be adopted seem so slim, it always brings tears of joy to the staff who cared for her for so long. Annie's adoption is a source of inspiration for us to continue working for all the animals that need extra help," Meloccaro says.

Renee hopes their decision to adopt a pet with special needs inspires others to do the same.

"I hope that people are able to look at our story and realize that they shouldn’t be afraid to take home an older or special needs pet! It may seem like a lot on paper, and that may intimidate new pet owners; just know that it’s worth it," the pet parent says.

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Farmers Show off Mammoth Produce at County Fair Headlined by 1,300 lbs. Pumpkin



At last weekend’s Malvern Autumn Festival in the UK, growers from across the Isles showed off the truly frightening proportions that vegetables can grow to, headlined by massive pumpkins brought in on a forklift.

4th place winner Tim Saint transported his whopping 667 lbs. pumpkin in a trailer to display at the event held over the weekend in England’s Worcestershire.

Even though he needed a pallet, trailer, and industrial strapping to move the thing, his was a small fry compared to Curtis Leach’s 1st prize-winning pumpkin that arrived at weights usually reserved for cars.



At 638 kilograms, or 1,373 lbs, the gargantuan gourd was 40 kilograms more than the second-place entry, but half as heavy as the current Guinness World Record for heaviest pumpkin, which was 2,700 pounds.

“I grew a 667 lbs. pumpkin this year which I’m delighted at,” said Mr. Saint. “I’ve been growing pumpkins for 20 years and that’s the biggest I’ve ever done It’s got to be over 3ft tall at least, I’m 6ft tall myself and it’s big.”

“The secret is just plenty of water and manure, plenty of cow manure especially,” added Mr. Saint, who did take 1st prize for largest beetroot. “It takes a lot of water, I normally give it five watering cans of water a day.”



One of the largest harvest festivals in the UK, there are 35 categories for giant or long vegetables, and this year 8 new world records were set, including for Largest Runner Bean Leaf, Heaviest Runner Bean, Tallest Tomatillo Plant, Longest Luffa, Heaviest Bell Pepper, Heaviest Cucumber, Heaviest Broad Bean, and Longest Broad Bean.

Ian Stott brought along a 49-pound cabbage which secured him second spot on the winner’s podium this year.

“It’s 22kg and about four-and-a-half feet wide,” he said proudly, adding that “it’s not been a good year for cabbages, it was so hot at the beginning of the season.”

“You’ve got to have the right seed and Mother Nature needs to be on your side… They weren’t that big this year. I’ve had them 6ft across and it’s a bit hard to not break leaves off him,” said Mr. Stott, who lost out on 1st prize to Annette Stone, who managed to break 54 pounds with her cabbage.

[Misstee]

We carry DNA from extinct cousins like Neanderthals. Science is now revealing their genetic legacy

by LAURA UNGAR and MADDIE BURAKOFF



Comparison of Modern Human and Neanderthal skulls from the Cleveland Museum


Neanderthals live on within us.

These ancient human cousins, and others called Denisovans, once lived alongside our early Homo sapiens ancestors. They mingled and had children. So some of who they were never went away—it's in our genes. And science is starting to reveal just how much that shapes us.

Using the new and rapidly improving ability to piece together fragments of ancient DNA, scientists are finding that traits inherited from our ancient cousins are still with us now, affecting our fertility, our immune systems, even how our bodies handled the COVID-19 virus.

"We're now carrying the genetic legacies and learning about what that means for our bodies and our health," said Mary Prendergast, a Rice University archeologist.

In the past few months alone, researchers have linked Neanderthal DNA to a serious hand disease, the shape of people's noses and various other human traits. They even inserted a gene carried by Neanderthals and Denisovans into mice to investigate its effects on biology, and found it gave them larger heads and an extra rib.

Much of the human journey remains a mystery. But Dr. Hugo Zeberg of the Karolinska Insitute in Sweden said new technologies, research and collaborations are helping scientists begin to answer the basic but cosmic questions: "Who are we? Where did we come from?"

And the answers point to a profound reality: We have far more in common with our extinct cousins than we ever thought.
NEANDERTHALS WITHIN US

Until recently, the genetic legacy from ancient humans was invisible because scientists were limited to what they could glean from the shape and size of bones. But there has been a steady stream of discoveries from ancient DNA, an area of study pioneered by Nobel Prize winner Svante Paabo who first pieced together a Neanderthal genome.

Advances in finding and interpreting ancient DNA have allowed them to see things like genetic changes over time to better adapt to environments or through random chance.

It's even possible to figure out how much genetic material people from different regions carry from the ancient relatives our predecessors encountered.

Research shows some African populations have almost no Neanderthal DNA, while those from European or Asian backgrounds have 1% to 2%. Denisovan DNA is barely detectable in most parts of the world but makes up 4% to 6% of the DNA of people in Melanesia, which extends from New Guinea to the Fiji Islands.

That may not sound like much, but it adds up: Even though only 100,000 Neanderthals ever lived, "half of the Neanderthal genome is still around, in small pieces scattered around modern humans," said Zeberg, who collaborates closely with Paabo.

It's also enough to affect us in very real ways. Scientists don't yet know the full extent, but they're learning it can be both helpful and harmful.

For example, Neanderthal DNA has been linked to auto-immune diseases like Graves' disease and rheumatoid arthritis. When Homo sapiens came out of Africa, they had no immunity to diseases in Europe and Asia, but Neanderthals and Denisovans already living there did.

"By interbreeding with them, we got a quick fix to our immune systems, which was good news 50,000 years ago," said Chris Stringer, a human evolution researcher at the Natural History Museum in London. "The result today is, for some people, that our immune systems are oversensitive, and sometimes they turn on themselves."

Similarly, a gene associated with blood clotting believed to be passed down from Neanderthals in Eurasia may have been helpful in the "rough and tumble world of the Pleistocene," said Rick Potts, director of the human origins program at the Smithsonian Institution. But today it can raise the risk of stroke for older adults. "For every benefit," he said, "there are costs in evolution."

In 2020, research by Zeberg and Paabo found that a major genetic risk factor for severe COVID-19 is inherited from Neanderthals. "We compared it to the Neanderthal genome and it was a perfect match," Zeberg said. "I kind of fell off my chair."

The next year, they found a set of DNA variants along a single chromosome inherited from Neanderthals had the opposite effect: protecting people from severe COVID.

The list goes on: Research has linked Neanderthal genetic variants to skin and hair color, behavioral traits, skull shape and Type 2 diabetes. One study found that people who report feeling more pain than others are likely to carry a Neanderthal pain receptor. Another found that a third of women in Europe inherited a Neanderthal receptor for the hormone progesterone, which is associated with increased fertility and fewer miscarriages.

Much less is known about our genetic legacy from Denisovans—although some research has linked genes from them to fat metabolism and better adaptation to high altitudes. Maanasa Raghavan, a human genetics expert at the University of Chicago, said a stretch of Denisovan DNA has been found in Tibetans, who continue to live and thrive in low-oxygen environments today.

Scientists have even found evidence of "ghost populations"—groups whose fossils have yet to be discovered—within modern humans' genetic code.
SO WHY DID WE SURVIVE?

In the past, the tale of modern humans' survival "was always told as some success story, almost like a hero's story," in which Homo sapiens rose above the rest of the natural world and overcame the "insufficiencies" of their cousins, Potts said.

"Well, that simply is just not the correct story."

Neanderthals and Denisovans had already existed for thousands of years by the time Homo sapiens left Africa. Scientists used to think we won out because we had more complex behavior and superior technology. But recent research shows that Neanderthals talked, cooked with fire, made art objects, had sophisticated tools and hunting behavior, and even wore makeup and jewelry.

Several theories now tie our survival to our ability to travel far and wide.

"We spread all over the world, much more than these other forms did," Zeberg said.

While Neanderthals were specially adapted to cold climates, Potts said, Homo sapiens were able to disperse to all different kinds of climates after emerging in tropical Africa. "We are so adaptable, culturally adaptable, to so many places in the world," he said.

Meanwhile, Neanderthals and Denisovans faced harsh conditions in the north, like repeated ice ages and ice sheets that likely trapped them in small areas, said Eleanor Scerri, an archeologist at Germany's Max Planck Institute for Geoanthropology. They lived in smaller populations with a greater risk of genetic collapse.

Plus, we had nimble, efficient bodies, Prendergast said. It takes a lot more calories to feed stocky Neanderthals than comparatively skinny Homo sapiens, so Neanderthals had more trouble getting by, and moving around, especially when food got scarce.

Janet Young, curator of physical anthropology at the Canadian Museum of History, pointed to another intriguing hypothesis—which anthropologist Pat Shipman shared in one of her books –- that dogs played a big part in our survival. Researchers found the skulls of domesticated dogs in Homo sapiens sites much further back in time than anyone had found before. Scientists believe dogs made hunting easier.

By around 30,000 years ago, all the other kinds of hominins on Earth had died off, leaving Homo sapiens as the last humans standing.
'INTERACTION AND MIXTURE'

Still, every new scientific revelation points to how much we owe our ancient cousins.

Human evolution was not about "survival of the fittest and extinction," said John Hawks, a paleoanthropologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. It's about "interaction and mixture."

Researchers expect to learn more as science continues to advance, allowing them to extract information from ever-tinier traces of ancient lives. Even when fossils aren't available, scientists today can capture DNA from soil and sediment where archaic humans once lived.

And there are less-explored places in the world where they hope to learn more. Zeberg said "biobanks" that collect biological samples will likely be established in more countries.

As they delve deeper into humanity's genetic legacy, scientists expect to find even more evidence of how much we mixed with our ancient cousins and all they left us.

"Perhaps," Zeberg said, "we should not see them as so different."