When People Did Not Have Access to Mobile Internet, they Spent More Time Socializing in Person, Exercising, and Being in Nature.

https://www.harmonyhit.com/phone-screen-time-statistics/

Our results provide evidence that blocking mobile internet from smartphones for 2 weeks can produce significant improvements for SWB (subjective well being), mental health, and the objectively measured ability to sustain attention. Even those who did not fully comply with the intervention experienced significant, though more modest, improvements. These findings suggest that constant connection to the online world comes at a cost, since psychological functioning improves when this connection is reduced. Blocking mobile internet on smartphones improves sustained attention, mental health, and subjective well-being PNAS Nexus, Volume 4, Issue 2, February 2025, pgaf017, https://doi.org/10.1093/pnasnexus/pgaf017

Excuse me please, I have to check my phone.

Glenmark Pharmaceuticals Recall (check your prescription bottles)

In February, the FDA found problems with cleaning and testing at the plant in Madhya Pradesh, India, which was the subject of a ProPublica investigation last year. The current recalls, listed in an FDA enforcement report last week, cover a wide range of commonly prescribed medicines, including ones that treat epilepsy, diabetes, multiple sclerosis, heart disease and high blood pressure, among other ailments. ​​A full list of the recalled medications is available here. An Indian Drugmaker, Investigated by ProPublica Last Year, Has Recalled Two Dozen Medications Sold to U.S. Patients https://www.propublica.org/article/glenmark-recalls-two-dozen-drugs

Time to bring the pharma supply chain back onshore.

What’s Your America? (there are 10 Americas) – Updated with Scary Charts 02.01.25

Asians and Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islanders definitively outlive other Americans. Is there anything we can learn from them? A confluence of factors may be at play. They tend to have relatively higher socioeconomic status, lower rates of obesity, and the lowest smoking rates of any racial group in the U.S. Healthier traditional cooking may also contribute to their longevity. When it comes to life expectancy, there are 10 Americashttps://bigthink.com/health/ten-americas-for-life-expectancy/

Attention Mortality Risk Experts

Sharpen your pencils and don’t ask me what a pencil is.

Updated 02.01.25 with Scary Charts

Would You Pay $700.00 a Month to Live in One of These?

Large enough to fit a twin mattress!

Sleep on it: the $700 San Francisco ‘pod’ with privacy curtains and charging ports

A company that rents “sleeping pods” in downtown San Francisco for $700 a month has had 300 people apply for its remaining 17 beds, the company’s CEO said. https://www.theguardian.com/society/2024/oct/31/san-francisco-sleeping-pods-affordable-housing-crisis?

Mmm…no.

Would You Pay $850.00 a Month to Live in One of These?

The image above shows a proposed apartment in Denver, which would cost about $850 – less than half the current median rent in the city of $1,771. Are ‘micro-apartments’ converted from offices the answer to the housing crisis? https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/personalfinance/real-estate/2024/10/22/empty-offices-become-tiny-apartments-housing-crisis/75784459007/

I actually visited some micros in Providence RI.

One of the nation’s most beautiful historic shopping arcades was restored as 48 affordable micro-lofts, rents starting at $550 per month, and 17 small retail spaces in Providence, Rhode Island. The Micro Lofts at the Arcade Providence, completed in 2012, helps keep young professionals and artists downtown and is a major step in revitalizing the city. Micro Lofts at the Arcade Providencehttps://www.cnu.org/what-we-do/build-great-places/micro-lofts-arcade-providence

If I were a lot younger, single, had a job in a CBD and not set in my Old Man Ways I would consider micro-living. I might even try a repurposed recycled wind turbine.

wind turbine tiny house

all images courtesy of Vattenfall and Business in Wind

During Dutch Design Week 2024, Superuse and Vattenfall showcase the discarded wind turbine part they’ve transformed into a furnished tiny house powered by solar panels. The design studio and energy company convert a nacelle, which is the top part of a wind turbine or the container of the engine, into a compact and movable furnished home, and visitors to the Dutch event can see it firsthand between October 19th and 27th, 2024, in Eindhoven. discarded wind turbine vessel turns into solar-powered tiny house by superuse and vattenfall — https://www.designboom.com/technology/superuse-vattenfall-discarded-wind-turbine-solar-powered-tiny-house-dutch-design-week-2024-10-24-2024/

I keep telling The Boss all I’m trying to do is to make our retirement income last as long as we last.

Rejected. Again.

Food for Thought (and memories)

Mealtime can provide opportunities to connect with someone experiencing memory loss and tap into deeply rooted memories. “If you’re going to make your father’s favorite meal, think about how you can delve into it as an experience,” Aguirre says. Dr. Kramer notes that several senses associated with cooking and eating dishes, including smell and taste, are closely related to memory. Both the olfactory bulb, the main receiving center for smell, and the insular cortex and frontal operculum (also called the gustatory cortex), responsible for perception of taste, are closely connected to the amygdala, an area involved in emotional learning. The olfactory nerve, which conveys the sense of smell to the brain, is also close to the hippocampus, one of the most important brain structures for memory. And the combined effect of smell and taste—what neuroscientists who study this field call “flavor”—can be especially powerful at conjuring long-held memories charged with emotion, says Joel Salinas, MD, MBA, FAAN, assistant professor of neurology at NYU Langone Health and chief medical officer at Isaac Health, a clinic in New York City for brain health and memory problems.Favorite Meals May Trigger Memories in People with Dementiahttps://www.brainandlife.org/articles/food-may-trigger-memories-in-people-with-dementia

Researchers Have Mapped all 139,255 Neurons in the Brain of an adult fruit fly

An adult fruit fly’s brain is much more complex, however—and most importantly, the small insects share 60 percent of human DNA, as well 75 percent of the genes that cause genetic diseases, per a statement. As such, understanding the fly’s brain in such detail could hold implications for connections in human brains—and the neural pathways that lead to certain behaviors. Fruit flies, like humans, can get drunk, sing and be kept awake with coffee, suggesting similarities in our brains. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/scientists-unveil-the-first-ever-complete-map-of-an-adult-fruit-flys-brain-captured-in-stunning-detail-180985191/

An actuary, an underwriter and a fruit fly walk into a bar…