#world obesity day 2023

[shaktiknowledgeblog]

world obesity day | World obesity day 2023 | healthy | Lifestyle | disease | Fat disease | major disease

By the year 2035, half of the population will be affected by this major disease, a frightening report has come out World obesity day 2023: A report by the World Obesity Federation has come on World Obesity Day, according to which obesity can make many people its victims by 2035. Image Source: FREEPIK obesity_day_2023 World obesity day 2023: Every year on March 4, Obesity Day is celebrated. It is…

[suchananewsblog]

World Obesity Day 2023: Date, Theme, Significance And Diet Tips To Manage Obesity

It’s alarming to see obesity rising among people of all ages, across the world. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), obesity has tripled worldwide since 1975, and what’s more worrying is that the obesity rate has increased five times in children and adolescents. It’s important to put a stop to it, and raising awareness about it is one of the most effective measures. World Obesity Day…

[dandelionsresilience]

Good News - August 8-14

Like these weekly* compilations? Tip me at $kaybarr1735 or check out my new(ly repurposed) Patreon! (*sorry this one’s a day late, I had a family emergency)

1. Rio’s grassroots agroforestry sustains birds, bees & communities

��[Community-created and -maintained] agroforests have reshaped the urban landscape and now attract an array of fauna, from birds to bees and even fireflies, drawn by the diversity of plant life thriving on improved soils. Perhaps most importantly, the agroforests offer free food and medicines to residents in need, plus shade and educational opportunities for the whole community[….]”

2. First giant pandas from China in decades make their public debut in San Diego

(image source) “Tensions between the U.S. and China had temporarily paused the program known as "panda diplomacy" in which China loans its native animals to zoos around the world […] as a show of goodwill[….] But the presence of [the two pandas in San Diego] appears to show a mending of the diplomatic relationship, which Chinese President Xi Jinping pledged to work toward in a meeting with President Biden last year. [… Gov. Newsom] called the giant pandas an example of how strong worldly partnerships can protect wildlife and their habitats[….]”

3. Good news for Europe's top economies as disposable income rises

“Poland experienced the largest increase in disposable income per capita, rising by 10.2% compared with a decrease of 2.7% in the last quarter of 2023. According to the OECD, this growth was "mainly driven by increases in employee compensation, social benefits other than in-kind transfers, and property income". […] In Germany, [household income per capita] rose by 1.4%, compared to just 0.1% in the previous quarter, partly driven by an increase in employee compensation.”

4. FDA approves nasal spray as first needle-free treatment for anaphylaxis

“The spray, which will be sold under the brand name Neffy, is seen as an alternative to EpiPen and other autoinjectors. […] “Some people, particularly children, may delay or avoid treatment due to fear of injections,” said Kelly Stone, an associate director at the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, adding that the availability of the nasal spray may reduce barriers to rapid treatment.”

5. [Colin Farrell] is launching a foundation to support adult[s] who have an intellectual disability

““We want to take a good look at residential potential for families with young adults who are ready to go out into the world and have a greater sense of community and connection,” says the actor. […] "It’s really important for James and for all of our kids to feel like they are wanted, to feel like they’re part of the community. Not just out of charitable endeavors or being nice and doing the right thing, but out of a sincere desire to engage and learn about each other."”

6. The Berlin Zoo is hoping for more German-born giant pandas as scans confirm a pregnancy

“Giant pandas have difficulty breeding and births are particularly welcomed. There are about 1,800 pandas living in the wild in China and a few hundred in captivity worldwide. […] The zoo noted that female pandas are only capable of reproducing for about 72 hours per year.”

7. Arizona school district highlights the benefits of free lunch

“A study by the University of Washington found free meals at school help reduce hunger, reduce the stigma tied to free lunch, and can help reduce childhood obesity. [… A cafeteria worker] said since the school district began offering free lunch, they have seen a positive shift in the cafeteria culture, and students seem happier. […] In September of 2023, the USDA […] loosened up its application threshold for applicants, allowing an estimated 3,000 more school districts in high-need areas to participate in the [CEP] program.”

8. Gigantic millipede lost to science for 126 years rediscovered in remote Madagascan jungle

“A further 20 species 'lost' to science were rediscovered during the expedition, including three iridescent species of fish and several species of ant-like flower beetles.”

9. The climate law’s $8.8B in home energy rebates are starting to roll out

“New York and Wisconsin are the first to launch their long-awaited Inflation Reduction Act programs meant to deploy everything from heat pumps to insulation. […] Once deployed, the DOE estimates, the home energy rebates will help save consumers up to $1 billion in annual energy costs and support an estimated 50,000 U.S. jobs in construction, manufacturing, and other sectors. They’ll also help clean up buildings, one of the biggest sources of carbon pollution in the country.”

10. Advance in stem cell therapy: New technique for manipulating stem cells opens door to novel treatments

“Recently, a team of McGill researchers discovered that by stretching, bending and flattening the nuclei of stem cells to differing degrees, they could generate precisely targeted cells that they could direct to become either bone or fat cells. […] The first applications of this discovery are likely to involve bone regeneration, possibly relating to dental or cranio-facial repair[….]”

August 1-7 news here | (all credit for images and written material can be found at the source linked; I don’t claim credit for anything but curating.)

[vote-democrat-president-congress]

Erin Brockovich: What’s at Stake in November

July 30, 2024

By Erin Brockovich

Ms. Brockovich is an environmental activist.

Every day, I get emails from people asking for help. They think I’m a lawyer. I’m not. They want to know what caused their cancer or why their farm has tested high for chemicals they’ve never heard of. They want someone to fight for them.

The recent Supreme Court decision overturning the 40-year-old Chevron precedent, which allowed federal agencies to interpret the laws they oversee, should wake us up to how truly alone we are when it comes to environmental health protections. If Donald Trump wins in November, things could go from bad to worse. Progress to protect Americans from dangerous chemicals could reach a standstill.

I could list dozens, if not thousands, of contaminants we come in contact with, some regulated by federal and state agencies, and others not. I’ll focus on per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, a class of thousands of synthetic chemicals that are finally being recognized for the damage they cause.

PFAS are known as “forever chemicals” because they persist in the environment and in human bodies for decades. These chemicals have been used to make common items from textiles to adhesives to food packaging to firefighting foams to nonstick cookware.

The health problems associated with exposure to PFAS include fertility issues, developmental delays in children and increased risk of certain cancers and of obesity, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. Scientists have detected PFAS chemicals in the blood of almost all Americans.

Sign up for the Opinion Today newsletter Get expert analysis of the news and a guide to the big ideas shaping the world every weekday morning. Get it sent to your inbox. What’s frustrating is that we’ve known for decades which industries use these chemicals, and we’ve known they are accumulating in the environment. But companies and our regulators delayed action.

Take just one example. From the 1950s through the 1970s, 3M dumped its PFAS waste into pits around Minnesota’s eastern Twin Cities metro area. That led to a more than 150-square-mile plume of contaminated groundwater. Subsequent testing revealed that by 2004, more than 140,000 Minnesotans had tainted drinking water. Years later, a young woman named Amara Strande grew up near the plume.

In 2023, Ms. Strande testified in front of Minnesota lawmakers in support of legislation that would restrict PFAS, which she believed caused her rare form of liver cancer. She died weeks before legislation known as Amara’s Law banned the use of PFAS in Minnesota. She was 20 years old. There are more cases like hers.

The number of U.S. communities reportedly contaminated with PFAS compounds continues to grow. Last year, one or more types of PFAS were detected in almost half of the nation’s tap water.

People like to talk about the risks of federal oversight and regulations. But without those basic guardrails in place, large companies get to do whatever they want, and hard-working Americans get sick.

Some much needed action was taken on PFAS at the national level recently. In April, the E.P.A. mandated that municipal water systems remove six PFAS chemicals from tap water. Such efforts are now at risk.

Under the Supreme Court’s recent Chevron ruling, federal judges get the final say on how laws including the Clean Water Act and the Safe Drinking Water Act should be applied. This weakens the ability of regulatory agencies to do their jobs protecting the public’s health from problems such as PFAS. Future pollution cases could meander through the federal court system for years while drinking water remains contaminated.

Companies will take advantage of this ruling. Water utility and chemical manufacturing companies have filed challenges with the E.P.A., calling the rule “arbitrary, capricious, and an abuse of discretion.”

Now imagine you take these kneecapped regulations and pair them with a second Trump presidency. President Trump rolled back decades of clean-water protections and dozens of environmental rules. The E.P.A. is still reeling from the exodus of more than 1,200 scientists and policy experts during his administration. One of his political appointees meddled with a PFAS assessment, weakening the toxicity value of a chemical.

The E.P.A. already had its problems, but the agency fared even worse under Mr. Trump. He repeatedly tried to slash the E.P.A.’s budget and many staff members fled, meaning fewer inspectors, fewer resources to study the impact of toxins and more companies contravening environmental regulations.

I recently reviewed Project 2025, a playbook for the first 180 days of the potential next Trump administration. (Mr. Trump says he doesn’t support the project, though many of his former White House employees are involved.) In the E.P.A. chapter, PFAS are mentioned twice. Project 2025 says the administration should revise groundwater cleanup regulations and policies to reflect the challenges of contaminants such as PFAS, which seems fair. But then it also says the administration should revisit the E.P.A. designation of PFAS chemicals as “hazardous substances” under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA), also known as Superfund. That seems contradictory and ill advised. The designation helps make available CERCLA’s enforcement tools and cost recovery, ensuring that the polluters, not taxpayers, fund or conduct investigations and cleanup.

I’m not giving Democratic administrations a pass. We need more accountability for the environmental ills that have passed under their watch. These include the water crisis in Flint, Mich., and Jackson, Miss. The state and federal responses to the toxic train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, left much to be desired. We must expect more from those we put in office; our lives depend on it.

The E.P.A. used to have bipartisan support. The Reagan administration changed that when President Ronald Reagan appointed a corporation-friendly E.P.A. administrator who railed against government regulation.

Rules are effective only if they can be enforced. State and federal agencies have done a poor job of building meaningful enforcement into the well-intentioned regulations that have been enacted, and they must do better. Americans’ health is at risk.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/30/opinion/erin-brockovich-pfas.html

[tomorrowusa]

There is a lot of emphasis in the news media on Biden's age while almost nothing about Trump's fitness. This needs to change and we should be more active about holding news organizations to account.

In a four day period in September, the cable news stations mentioned Biden’s age 193 times while Trump’s age was mentioned just 56 times. (MediaMatters.org on September 29, 2023.) After this one sided coverage, these same media outlets then polled the voters about Biden’s age and found (surprise!) that voters are more concerned about Biden’s age than Trump’s age. It’s garbage in and garbage out.

There's just a 3.5 year difference between Biden and Trump. But Trump is not the fitter of the two. Being an epic blowhard and blabbermouth is not a measure of fitness.

After Biden concluded his debt ceiling deal with McCarthy in June, the extremist so-called House “Freedom” Caucus members complained that Biden “outsmarted” McCarthy in the negotiations. The House GOP’s most extreme members hate Biden and have zero incentive to tell the truth about Biden’s good state of health.

So even the most extreme Republicans had to admit that they were outfoxed by Biden.

On October 2, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) took to the floor of the House to denounce the deal that funded the government for forty five days Gaetz said: “It is going to be difficult for my Republican friends to keep calling President Biden feeble while he continues to take Speaker McCarthy’s lunch money in every negotiation.”

As for Trump's health, mental health in particular, the evidence of his debility is on full display.

Meanwhile, the mainstream press has largely ignored and downplayed Trump’s declining mental condition and increasing tendency to threaten violence. Probably the only mainstream media piece that accurately described the respective health of Biden and Trump was in the New York Times on June 4, 2023. The pertinent excerpts are as follows: “While in office, Mr. Trump generated concerns about his mental acuity and physical condition. He did not exercise, his diet leaned heavily on cheeseburgers and steak and he officially tipped the scales at 244 pounds, a weight formally deemed obese for his height. After complaining that he was overscheduled with morning meetings, Mr. Trump stopped showing up at the Oval Office until 11 or 11:30 a.m. each day, staying in the residence to watch television, make phone calls or send out incendiary tweets. During an appearance at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, he had trouble lifting a glass of water and seemed to have trouble making his way down a modest ramp. Most striking was Mr. Trump’s cognitive performance. He was erratic and tended to ramble; experts have found that he had grown less articulate and that his vocabulary had shrunk since his younger days. Aides said privately that Mr. Trump had trouble processing information and distinguishing fact from fiction. His second chief of staff, John F. Kelly, bought a book analyzing Mr. Trump’s psychological health to understand him better, and several cabinet secretaries concerned that he might be mentally unfit discussed invoking the 25th Amendment to remove him.”

He's gotten worse rather than better since leaving office.

These aren’t isolated statements. The highlights (or lowlights) of Trump’s deteriorating condition are as follows. Trump forgot who is currently president, and claimed “the Obama administration” recorded the length of his “border wall.” He even claimed **Jeb Bush** invaded Afghanistan and Iraq! Trump appeared confused when he said Jeb Bush was president during the Iraq War. “You know he was a mili — he got us into the, uh, he got us into the Middle East … Right?” In September, Trump mixed up Biden and Obama, and claimed Biden might start World War TWO. Trump even said you need a government photo ID to buy a loaf of bread. At the same time, Trump’s remarks have taken a dark turn and he has repeatedly threatened violence. Trump suggested that General Mark Milley should be executed. If anybody else had said that, they would be getting a visit from the FBI. The fact that this isn’t being treated as major front-page news is astonishing to me.

Trump makes threats to media moguls and they go easy on reporting his delirium.

The run away front runner for the GOP presidential nomination said Comcast, the owner of NBC and MSNBC, “should be investigated for its ‘Country Threatening Treason’” and promised to do so should he be re-elected president next year. Why does the press continue to cover up Trump’s poor health when he has promised to go after them? How can they be so stupid? It’s pretty wild that, of the two leading presidential candidates, the guy found liable for rape and who is facing ninety one criminal indictments isn’t the one who is facing calls to step aside for someone else to run. The mainstream media has lost all sense of scale and proportion. The media fixation with Biden as opposed to this clearly impaired guy is journalistic malpractice.

Psychologist Mary Trump, Donald's niece, called her uncle a "dangerous presence" on Australia's ABC earlier this year. She also said he was essentially "an insecure little boy who seeks attention".

And that's just the tip of the iceberg.

Ask your news providers why they are seldom mentioning Trump's mental health in their coverage. They should not be normalizing his threats against people and his bizarre erratic comments.

[covid-safer-hotties]

Also preserved in our archive

Another great reason to keep masking: We don't even have a good treatment for long covid yet, and many doctors know simply nothing about the condition.

Global efforts to understand and manage long Covid post-pandemic, with varied symptoms and limited treatment guidelines worldwide

Doctors in India are grappling to diagnose and treat unexplained and persistent symptoms of long Covid patients due to limited guidelines, whereas researchers have flagged inadequate studies on the condition.

With the World Health Organization declaring an end to COVID-19 as a global health emergency in May last year, focused efforts are underway around the world to estimate the burden of long Covid among the population.

The condition refers to the set of lingering symptoms affecting varied body parts and persisting well beyond the acute Covid infection period, including cough, muscle and joint pain, fatigue, brain fog and difficulty in focusing. The viral disease is caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

While studies have suggested that about a third of those moderately or severely infected are likely to suffer from long Covid, region-wise though, incidence could vary.

A study by researchers, including those from Harvard Medical School, U.S., estimated that 31% of the once-infected people in North America, 44% in Europe, and 51% in Asia, have long Covid, which is “challenging the healthcare system, but there are limited guidelines for its treatment”. It was published in the International Journal of Infectious Diseases in September.

In India, however, studies on long Covid are few and far between.

One such study by Maulana Azad Medical College in New Delhi, conducted from May 2022 to March 2023 on 553 patients who had recovered from Covid, found that about 45% had lingering symptoms, persistent fatigue and dry cough being the most common.

“There is limited exploratory research on the long Covid syndrome with scarce data on long-term outcomes,” the authors wrote in the study published in the journal Cureus in May this year.

Understanding the long-term effects of the virus is important for developing management strategies, optimising healthcare delivery, and providing support to recovered Covid patients in the community, they said.

Dr Rajesh Sagar, Professor of Psychiatry, All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi, said, “Looking at the current state of long Covid studies in India, it is too premature to say that we understand the condition well enough to know how to diagnose or treat it.”

Animesh Samanta, assistant professor at School of Natural Sciences in Shiv Nadar University, Greater Noida, said, “While studies in India highlight the growing recognition of neurological complications in long Covid patients, more focused research on neuroinflammation is needed.”

Doctors, too, have reported a rise in patients complaining of symptoms that they did not have pre-Covid. “People who never had asthma in the past, post-Covid, with every viral infection, they get a long cough, shortness of breath and wheezing, which require the use of inhalers or nebuliser,” senior consultant Dr. Neetu Jain, who runs a post-Covid care clinic at Pushpawati Singhania Hospital and Research Institute, New Delhi, said.

Dr. Arun Garg, chairman, Neurology and Neurosciences, Medanta-The Medicity, Gurugram, said that he was noticing a spike in stroke cases among young patients not suffering from known risk factors such as diabetes, hypertension and obesity.

“Similarly, we are seeing more cases of encephalopathy (swelling of the brain) without reason and having a confused state of mind following one or two days of fever. Their MRI scans show no changes. These patients have increased significantly after Covid,” he said.

In the absence of medical guidelines to diagnose long Covid, doctors are having to resort to broad, non-specific tests and questionnaires to gauge a patient’s ‘quality of life’.

Studies have shown that the fatigue experienced in long Covid is similar to that in cancer patients, with a quality of life similar to patients of Parkinson’s disease.

“We really do not have any test to diagnose long Covid, even though it is definitely a clinical diagnosis. We diagnose long Covid for people who had at least moderate to severe infection, following which they could never regain the quality-of-life pre-Covid. Checking for inflammatory markers like C-reactive proteins (CRP) can support the diagnosis,” Dr. Jain said.

“Other than routine blood tests that measure inflammation, we do antibody tests to look for direct markers. In many of these patients, we are finding rare antibodies which are very new to us and were not there pre-Covid,” Dr. Garg said.

Inflammation persisting despite recovery from acute Covid infection is thought to lie at the heart of long Covid. However, tests to measure this specific immune response are lacking, even as researchers have been working in this direction worldwide.

One such effort comes from Shiv Nadar University, where a team led by Mr. Samanta has developed a fluorescent probe capable of detecting inflammation in brain cells that can arise due to Covid infection.

The probe measures nitric oxide levels in brain cells, especially in human microglia cells, where increased NO levels are linked to the SARS-CoV-2 infection. Microglia are immune cells in the brain that fight disease and help maintain brain health.

Lysosomes within microglia, which help clear foreign disease-causing agents like the SARS-CoV-2 virus, produce nitric oxide as part of an immune response to infection. The probe detects nitric oxide produced in lysosomes in response to infection and thereby allows for a measurement of inflammation levels.

This examination method can provide “qualitative information on infection status”, said Mr. Samanta, corresponding author on the study published in the journal Analytical Chemistry in American Chemical Society.

He explained that patients with pre-existing conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease or multiple sclerosis (an autoimmune disorder) could exhibit prolonged neuroinflammation and loss of brain cells following Covid infection.

While the probe has shown efficacy in cell cultures, animal studies would need to be done, before testing it in humans, Mr. Samanta said.

Looking at the World Health Organization International Clinical Trials Registry Platform, the study by Harvard Medical School had found that 587 clinical studies were conducted on long Covid, of which about 53% (312) were testing potential treatments.

Most of these were found to be conducted in the U.S. (58), followed by India (55) and Spain (20). The trials looked at interventions including physical exercise, psychotherapy, and pharmacological ones such as paxlovid and fluvoxamine.

However, “to date, only 11 of these 312 studies have published their results that were not confirmative,” the researchers wrote.

The team called for studies to look into sleep disorders which were rarely included in the registered clinical studies. Further, interventions targeting the biological processes responsible for long Covid are needed but currently lacking, they said.

[saintmeghanmarkle]

I can't believe it took so long for me to realise this. On patricidal narcissism and psychopathy and patricide by letter. by u/ElectricalAd9212

I can't believe it took so long for me to realise this. On patricidal narcissism and psychopathy, and patricide by letter. ​Why did Markle scheme, plot and design to destroy her father?Court records show that there was intense plotting to design a scenario in which Markle snuffed her father out, morally destroy him, by excluding him from her wedding.The letter which was revealed in court, showed that she wrote a letter, intending to have it leaked to the press, in order to depict herself as a victim. Her cynicism was sociopathic. She said she would use the word 'Daddy' in the letter, to play on the heartstrings of the public when it was leaked.Why did she want to do this to her father? For the psychopath, the wedding was to be her 'introduction' as a woman of primary importance in the world, and it was the moment of her narrative creation, in which she became the centre of the world.This was to be the iconic moment of the creation of her mythology.For this, her family had to be wiped out, except for her mother, who was useful to her.I had thought that her father was not in keeping with the aesthetic she wanted to promote.He was elderly and overweight.To have an obese father wasn't becoming for the image she wanted to project.To exclude him allowed her to play the helpless victim, as if she was abandoned by her father.But it also allowed her something else.It enabled her to be walked down the aisle by the future King.This is what she and Harry planned all along.For her image, for her power, for what she wanted Hollywood and the celebrity elites of America, who were her true audience, to see, was to have a King hold her hand as she wedded. This would, in her eyes, elevate her status amongst those she was already planning to rule over, the gilded elite class of Hollywood and America.From the start, she calculatedly destroyed her father so she could claim (then) Prince Charles, future King Charles, as her father.Surely there was another element to this too?She would style herself as 'the daughter that King Charles never had'She would take primacy in his affections, over Catherine.She would daughter-love-bomb the future King, and marginalise Catherine.She would own the King, be the proxy daughter of the King.How Harry must have been thrilled by this way of thinking.It all seems like a wonderful scheme.How could Charles deny his 'daughter' what she wanted, half in, half out, to be the equal of Catherine in status, to be the power behind the throne one day?But there is another aspect to this.Patricide is an impulse that, once performed, may seek to enact itself again.And remember, Harry fantasises in 'Spare' about calling in a jet fighter to bomb his father as he drives away from him on a visit to an army training camp. A fantasy of patricide.And just as she schemed to commit patricide against her father using a letter sent to him to be leaked, calling him 'Daddy', the patricide scheme against the King, involved a letter she calculatedly sent him, to be the instrument of his destruction, by discussing an alleged 'racist' slight, which by strange chance also implicated the detestable Catherine, whom she is now pathologically and psychotically obsessed with.The manifold evils of Markle the psychopath, and her husband, their cynical, cyanide hearted, cold calculatedly evil plans and plots truly take the breath away.The good thing is we can see them all transparently and in the open, and the lessons she will ultimately learn is that evil can flourish in darkness, but plots exposed in daylight only leads to the destruction of the plotter.We see through you, we see evil and we protect the good hearted souls of the family against you both.​ post link: https://ift.tt/YHn0sDe author: ElectricalAd9212 submitted: December 18, 2023 at 08:34PM via SaintMeghanMarkle on Reddit

[tilbageidanmark]

Movies I watched this week (#187):

Welcome Back, Mr. McDonald (1997) is a random Japanese screwball comedy that I never heard of, and have no idea how it popped on my radar. A late night radio drama is transmitted live in a studio, and none of the voice actors is happy about the script, so they start amending it. It was so absurd and chaotic - and so funny! After laughing out loud non stop the second half of this crazy ride, it won me over. 8/10.

Later on I discovered this video essay about director Koki Mitani, calling him 'The best Japanese filmmaker you've never heard of'. I'm going to catch his other movies, f'sure f'sure.

🍿

3 by Australian stop-motion animator Adam Elliot:

🍿 "PPS. Did you know that turtles can breath through their anuses?"

Mary and Max is like a weirdly adult Wallace and Gromit, a dark and tragic clay figure story, voiced by Philip Seymour Hoffman and Toni Collette. It's my most wonderful surprising discovery of the week! Two damaged and unfortunate souls connect by becoming pen pals; a lonely Australian 8-year-old girl with an ugly birthmark on her forehead, and an obese Jewish New Yorker with Asperger's. It encompasses 20 years of outlandish long-distance emotions which ends with the acknowledgement of friendship. Absolutely magical. 10/10.

🍿 "Life is like a cigarette. Smoke it to the butt."

His 2003 Oscar winner Harvie Krumpet is another dark biography of an unfortunate character. He is born in a village in Poland to a mad woman, and suffers throughout his life with a long list of calamities, Tourette's, magnetized skull, asthma, Alzheimer's as well as generally very bad luck. It's really odd. It also involves nudism, depression, vegetarianism, and birth defects - and still ends on a oddly-positive note!

🍿 Ernie Biscuit (2015), another "differently-able" story about a "divergent" type of an unusual protagonist: A deaf, lonely Parisian taxidermist who escapes to Venice with his duck but ends up in Australia.

🍿  

The wind will carry us, my 8th drama by Iranian Abbas Kiarostami. An "engineer" comes to a distant Kurdish village, but the story, whatever it is, is not very clear, and is never fully-explained. Apparently, he's not an engineer, but a journalist, and he comes to witness the burial rituals of a very old woman. Meanwhile, she doesn't die, and he just hangs around, waiting. This is not only "Slow cinema", but also "Simple cinema", and this "primitive" village doesn't offer many clues. The roosters crow, the radio plays songs in the distant, the shepherd boy walks his goats...

🍿

2 with Simone Signoret:

🍿 Army of shadows, my 6th bleak film by J-P Melville, following a group of French resistance fighters. It's a formal, introspective and restrained picture of hopelessness, fear and destiny, and you know from the depressing look of it that none of them will survive. "Still, they persisted".

🍿 The Shortest Day (1963), my first film by Italian Sergio Corbucci, and the first with the popular comedian duo 'Franco and Ciccio' (Screenshot Above). A forgettable broad comedy about a couple of numskulls who are recruited by mistake and sent to fight in the trenches of the first World War [Like Treat Williams was in the musical 'Hair!].

This film was only memorable because it had over 50 cameos of famous stars of the day, who appeared in it (for free), some of them only for few seconds worth.

🍿

Christy Hall's superb directorial debut Daddio (2024). It's a 2-person conversation inside a NYC night cab, like a movable 'Dinner with Andre'. Talkative and foul-mouthed Sean Penn is the taxi driver and armchair psychologist and he knows how to engages passenger Dakota Johnson in an impromptu therapy session. Meanwhile, she opens up more and more and discloses personal and painful "truths" until the predictable 'reveal'. It's stagey but emotionally satisfying. 8/10. [*Female Director*]

🍿  

They shot the piano player (2023) is a Spanish animated drama about the real-life disappearance of Brazilian Bossa Nova pianist Tenório Jr. in 1976. It is hand drawn in a uniquely colorful style, and the music obviously is superb (For example, here's The trailer). But the framing devise of American journalist Jeff Goldblum, who discovers the story of and travels south to talk to musicians and family members, distracts from the emotional impact that could have been achieved. It ends up spending much time about the American-financed 'Operation Condor', which turned nearly all of South America into a cabal of murderous right-wing dictatorships, with thousands murdered and 'disappeared'.

(I saw it in the original Portuguese - with Arabic subtitles! - so I missed many details of the story.) 7/10.

🍿

2 with Icelandic Egill Ólafsson:

🍿 Touch, my 4th emotional film directed by Baltasar Kormákur. Ólafsson is an old man with a very early onset Alzheimer, who has to put his affairs in order. So he shuts down his restaurant, and embarks on finding his long-lost love from 50+ years ago. It brings him back to London where he had learnt to cook at a Japanese restaurant, and then to Hiroshima, where he finally meets his old lover.

🍿 Children of nature was the only Icelandic film nominated for an Oscar (in 1991). Interestingly, it also tells a story of an old man at the end of his life, who dares to do one crazy thing before the curtain falls. A man finds himself in a retirement home, where meets an old girlfriend. They decide to steal a Jeep and drive back to die in the place of their youth. 8/10.

🍿  

I enjoyed the original 'That's entertainment' very much, and promised myself to watch the sequel (there were two). Like 99% of all sequels,That's Entertainment, Part 2 is a copy of a much lower quality. Still, it includes dozens and dozens of clips from old MGM classics, many of which I haven't seen before (Young Bob Fosse in tight tights tap-dancing with Ann Miller in 'Kiss me Kate', human pogo stick Bobbie Van...) It felt though like somebody just threw together a 2-hour YouTube compilation of excellent highlights.

🍿

"My name? Enema Bag Jones!..."

The wrong guy is my first Dave Foley goofy, low-brow comedy (1997). It opens with a faux-Saul Bass and James Bond title sequence, and the first 10 minutes are cringeyly stupid! But then it shifts into a idiotic Hitchcock satire -an exceedingly funny and moronic Hitchcock satire - with joke after really idiotic joke that made me laugh out loud. He plays an over-the-top moron, and Jennifer Tilly plays a dumb narcoleptic farm girl and they do it so straight, it was a big surprise. 4/10.

🍿  

"Two Tati’s":

🍿 School for postmen (1947), Jacques Tati's first film. A perfect gem of comedic genius, which he expanded 2 years later into his first feature, 'Jour de fête'. Absolutely masterful. 10/10. Re-watch ♻️.

🍿 House Specialty ('Dégustation Maison, 1978) is a lovely short directed by Tati's daughter, Sophie Tatischeff, in the same village where he filmed 'Jour de fête' 30 years earlier. A day in the life of a little patisserie where all the pastries are loaded with liqueur. I just loved it! [*Female Director*]

🍿  

Through an eclectic reviewer on Letterboxd, I discovered Hamburger America, a so-so documentary about "different kinds" of burgers. (In 71 years I never ate a hamburger, and I will probably not have one in the next 71 years. But I love food, and I also cooked professionally for 10 years. Still I really cannot understand the concept of a burger, chopped beef, a bun, a slice of tomato, lettuce, and some mayonnaise. How did that ever become so iconic?)

🍿  

Another bunch of (mostly early-career) shorts:

🍿 Hypnotizing the Hypnotist (1911) was just a 1-reeler about hypnotism, a popular topic of the time. With Florence Turner, one of the early "stars" of the screen.

🍿 The Madness of Dr. Tube (1915), my first by Abel Gance. A (literal 'Egghead') mad-scientist discovers a cocaine-like powder, which causes those who are sprayed with it to experience hallucinogenic visions as if their bodies - and minds - are distorted, like in a crazed mirror house. The restored copy is exceptionally clear! (I didn't realize that Gance made movies up until 1967.)

🍿 Over the fence, Harold Lloyd's very first outing (1917), a debut of his 'Glasses' character. A cute baseball comedy that maintained its zest.

🍿  À propos de Nice, (1930), Jean Vigo's first documentary. It opens as an impressionistic time capsule, of the sights and people, with lots of overhead shots, upper class folks walking down the promenade, the carnival, casinos, and fancy cars. But then it turns into a surrealistic metaphor, with a sitting woman losing her cloths, feet losing their shoes, open manhole shot from below, and a man turns into a crocodile. An experimental tour.

🍿 The wagoner ("Borom Sarret", 1963), my first terrific film by Senegalese director Sembène Ousmane - possibly the first African film made by an African. A powerful and sad story about a poor man in Dakar trying to earn a meager living as a cart driver. 9/10.

🍿 Foutaises ("Things I like, things I hate"), is another of my frequent and beloved re-watches ♻️. Jean-Pierre Jeunet's very first film (1989), a condensed black and white precursor to Amélie. 8 minutes of perfection.

🍿 Like the Tati film above, the 2013 short Whiplash was the original proof of concept on which Damien Chazelle based his feature film debut the following year. And like the later Whiplash, the abusive psychopath J.K. Simmons holds zero appeal for me. Technically, this 18-min. short is as effective as the later one. 🍿  Linklater: On Cinema and Time (2013) is a visual essay that Kogonada made to accompany a philosophical BFI article he wrote about time and memory. I like Kogonada very much, but this reminds me why I didn’t care for ‘Before Sunrise’.

🍿 "Look at all that wasted space". In Negative Space a boy bonds with his traveling businessman dad by packing his suitcase. Oscar nominated in 2017. 💯 score on Rotten Tomatoes. [*Female Director*]

🍿 In Kiss of the Rabbit God (2019) a young waiter at an ordinary Chinese restaurant falls in love with a gorgeous, ethereal, neon-haired deity from the 18th century. A gay sexual hook-up in the back of the kitchen between two young guys, one of whom is an ancient God.

🍿 "Lean into loneliness and know you're not alone in it".

How to be at home, (2020) a Canadian instruction manual of how to deal with Covid social isolation, based on a poem by Tanya Davis. (Via). [*Female Director*]

🍿  Tall, dark and handsome (2023), my 3rd film by Sam Baron and the third starring 'Big Ears' Amit Shah. An Indian guy dating a white British woman (They're even expecting a baby together), becomes insecure when he discovers that she had dated several other Indian guys before him. Heartbreaking ending. 8/10.

🍿  

And finally: Timelapse of the Future: A Journey to the End of Time (2019) is a highly speculative documentary made by an astronomer about the end of "Time". Because I have no knowledge about the subject, it may or may not be scientifically plausible, as it talks about events that will happen trillions and trillions years into the future, but it mentions red and white dwarfs, pulsars, degenerate matters, Hawkins radiation, Black Hole Era, dark energy, entropy and unstable protons. All the while it plays various scenarios with creepy stock music, Kubrick's Stargate, and psychedelic graphics. Mmmmm....

Spoiler Alert: The universe will end in the year one googol.

🍿  

(My complete movie list is here).

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

By: Anonymous

Published: Mar 22, 2023

It has been two years since my 19 year old son walked into a Planned Parenthood and received HRT drugs on informed consent. His mother and I pleaded with him to not make such a life changing decision at such a young age. But he would not listen to reason and received these drugs without any psychological evaluation or supervision, and little medical supervision.

Since that time I have experienced bouts of intense anger, which have caused my mental health to decline. It’s an anger that woke me up at 2 am for nearly a year, and still regularly wakes me up at 4 am. It’s has taken a toll on my body, mind, and mood. I experience depression and anhedonia more often than not. I find little to no joy in hobbies I once relished. I take care of the tasks of daily living and not much else.

I honestly did not think it was possible to feel such emotional pain.

What am I angry about?

That society is enabling a cult of self-harm disguised as a fantasy. I am also furious that society sees me as the problem because I’m “transphobic”.

The medical establishment’s adoption of euphemisms for mutilating the bodies of teenagers— and calling it “gender affirming care”, all while making tidy profits.

The medical staff that continues to supply my son with wrong sex hormones, even though his mental and physical health is in obvious decline. At 19 he was thin, and at 21 he is borderline obese. He also reports crying daily. Yet he’s unwilling to stop taking drugs that are the source of this harm.

How the Democratic party (which I used to support) and Biden enable this social contagion. How Biden nominated Judge Jackson who refused to define the word ‘woman’. And I’m angry watching Rachel (Richard) Levine saying he was glad he had kids before transition while simultaneously advocating fertility destroying treatments for young people.

The misogyny of a movement that allows sexual predators to gain access to women’s spaces simply by claiming they’re a woman.

The misogyny of a movement that sees women as castrated men, and doesn’t value women’s ability to bring new life into the world. And that allows males to enter and dominate women’s sports (e.g. Lia Thomas), or injure women (e.g. Fallon Fox fracturing Tamikka Brents’ skull).

The media for denying predators exist (e.g. Wi Spa), and not covering physical harms happening to natal women, or when they do for using word salad and intentionally confusing language, like “she raped her with her penis”.

The media for not covering Planned Parenthood’s prescribing hormones with only informed consent and no due diligence or following up on the harm to young people who are damaging their bodies (the voices of detransitioners).

The trans movement’s redefinition of words and introducing made up pronouns and trying to enforce their usage and control language.

My own child for his entitled attitude that he should continue to receive college tuition while destroying his body and mind; his uncaring attitude for the emotional pain of his parents, and the enormous strain that his actions have put on my marriage.

My own utter powerlessness in the face of these events, and feeling like a failure for not protecting my child from this cult.

I am aging and hoped for the compensation of feeling I had a life well led, and that I successfully launched my children into the world. But my son has stolen that from me and left me feeling like an utter failure. This was a child that I treated with love, compassion, and generosity, and he has selfishly taken all that away.

I am aware of how this anger is harming my mind and body. What am I trying to do about it?

For the better part of a year I pleaded with my son to stop. His response was to call his mother and I transphobic.

Every day for the past two years I have restrained myself from sending my son a nasty email telling him what I really think about his narcissistic behavior and misogynistic fantasy.

I have twice given money to Partners for Ethical Care, hoping their billboard campaigns make a difference.

I will never vote Democrat again.

Some days I successfully pretend none of this is happening.

I enjoy those few moments of morning amnesia where I can’t yet recall my current circumstances.

I saw a therapist for about a year and a half, but it wasn't helpful. Part of me always saw the therapist as part of the profession enabling this social contagion. I also couldn’t trust him with my true feelings, as I feared judgment.

Several times a week I have a crying jag that lasts several minutes. I do it when my wife is out walking the dog so as to not burden her with this.

If I didn’t love my son, all of this would be much easier, but I do. And it is my love that causes the grief that feeds my anger.

[mediamonarchy]

https://mediamonarchy.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/20240508_MorningMonarchy.mp3 Download MP3 Deep pfarma pfakes, medium rare admissions and saccharine histories + this day in history w/super-sized mental hellpf and our song of the day by Jesse Daniel on your #MorningMonarchy for May 8, 2024. Notes/Links: Deepfake video falsely pitches dietary supplement “created with Pfizer” as diabetes remedy https://www.poynter.org/fact-checking/2024/deepfake-video-falsely-pitches-dietary-supplement-created-with-pfizer-as-diabetes-remedy/ Video: Breaking: Pfizer Halts Diabetes Pill Trial Due to Alarming Side Effects | Redacted w Clayton Morris (Jun. 28, 2023 // Audio) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8QzKKJ0h5Jo Pfizer to discontinue twice-daily weight loss pill due to high rates of adverse side effects (Dec. 1, 2023) https://www.cnbc.com/2023/12/01/pfizer-to-discontinue-twice-daily-version-of-weight-loss-pill.html Image: @Hybrid’s Cover Art – The Jigglenauts’ ‘Statistically Significant’ https://mediamonarchy.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/20240508_MorningMonarchy.jpg The craze for weight-loss drugs has led to slim supply and big earnings https://sherwood.news/snacks/business/the-craze-for-weight-loss-drugs-has-led-to-slim-supply-and-big-earnings/ Video: ELI LILLY COMMERCIAL 2024 | “SHAME” | OBESITY IS A MATTER OF HEALTH. SHAME HAS NO PLACE IN IT. (Audio) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P4J0EHCHYtw Lizzo’s fans criticize her for taking Ozempic to lose weight (Jan. 3, 2024) https://sandrarose.com/2024/01/lizzos-fans-criticize-her-for-taking-ozempic-to-lose-weight/ Lizzo Says She Is ‘The Beauty Standard’ As She Celebrates Her Body (Apr. 17, 2023) https://www.outlookindia.com/art-entertainment/lizzo-says-she-is-the-beauty-standard-as-she-celebrates-her-body-news-278973 NYT, believe it or not: Thousands Believe Covid Vaccines Harmed Them. Is Anyone Listening? http://archive.today/3MItE The CDC lied; people died; Steve Kirsch supplies some additional facts re: today’s Epoch Times article that revealed the CDC cover-up of COVID-19 vaccine caused deaths https://kirschsubstack.com/p/the-cdc-lied-people-died EXCLUSIVE: CDC Found Evidence COVID-19 Vaccines Caused Deaths; File presents evidence of a massive cover-up by CDC officials who found reasons to discard autopsies and death certificates that indicated COVID-19 vaccines were the cause of death. https://archive.ph/Qbu0S AstraZeneca cops to rare, deadly side effect of COVID jab as lawsuits mount https://nypost.com/2024/04/29/world-news/astrazeneca-cops-to-rare-deadly-side-effect-of-covid-jab-as-lawsuits-mount/ AstraZeneca admits in court that its ‘Covid vaccine can cause TTS side effects in rare cases’ https://archive.is/ZMy3S Video: Popular Covid jab reveals rare deadly side effect https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bl-KjxNGs6A Video: AstraZeneca Admits Covid Vaccine Can Cause Side-Effects In Very Rare Cases | IN18V | CNBC TV18 (Audio) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NHMQ5jGHStM AstraZeneca withdrawing Covid vaccine worldwide; Company says decision is purely commercial as jab has been superseded by alternatives https://archive.is/BDgX8 November 2023: GP surgery blunder led to healthy 28-year-old being given fatal AstraZeneca Covid jab; Alex Reid suffered rare blood clot caused by vaccine after childhood records were used that mistakenly classified him as morbidly obese https://web.archive.org/web/20240430140823/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/11/14/man-died-blunder-astrazeneca-covid-jab/ April 2024: Coroner issues warning after healthy man, 28, died of a blood clot when he was given AstraZeneca Covid jab early due to GP blunder which wrongly recorded him as being an obese child https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13366353/coroner-warning-healthy-man-died-blood-clot-astrazeneca-covid-jab.html Here We Go Again: Gretchen Whitmer admin issues emergency executive order over avian influenza https://www.themidwesterner.news/2024/05/here-we-go-again-gretchen-whitmer-admin-issues-emergency-executive-order-over-avian-influenza/ 5/6/24: CH...

[punkbakerchristine]

hello, tumblr, i am 30 years old and i got into baking and cooking on october 7, 2023–if you know anything about october 7, 2023, you should know how much all of this means to me 😅 i’m a gentile girl trying to be a mensch. am yisrael chai, don’t even think about it 🇮🇱

a little bit about me: i am an artist and a writer with a long background in science and engineering. i love animals (namely, dogs, cats, horses, birds, bats, rabbits, and reptiles), cartoons, books, and movies. i’m a hockey player at heart. i love formula 1. i love top gear and those three zany british men. i love the winter olympics. i love halloween and christmas. i’m a west coast girl. i love hawai’i and the ocean. i’m making a graphic novel. i was friends with chris cornell (yes, him). i’m a grunge fan but grunge fans don’t like me, though: you know that weird little alt rock kid seeing the heavy metal band that no one thinks about? that’s me.

i struggled with anorexia in my late teen years and obesity in the back half of my twenties: if you want to know what it’s like to deal with a debilitating eating disorder and then push nearly 300 pounds, imagine you’re drowning… and then someone hands you a big wedding cake. all jokes aside, i actually have a fat kink, if you can believe that. i actually have a number of kinks, but that’s one of my main ones. i deliberately gained weight to heal from my eating disorder, and to fulfill something that i had been curious about pretty much my whole life (like, “what if i got really fat, as fat as i could be?”) and i felt good. i loved being heavy and the idea of being a “big beautiful woman” if you will (especially when fat women have been worshipped for millennia; the whole skinny craze is relatively new). but i couldn’t keep it up, though: i started having trouble with my heart and my stomach, i was having migraines, and most of all, i was getting edema in my feet.

as of my writing this, since i started losing weight back in mid-july, i have lost 59 pounds, down from my heaviest ever at 268: i crossed the 200 pound threshold back in 2015, and now that i write it out, it would’ve been something to hit that number again after ten years (i’ll go with nine, though 🤷🏻‍♀️).

i’m pansexual and polyamorous. i’m single… but jimmy cracked corn and i don’t care (really, i don’t even think about relationships). i do have a crush, though, on a jewish man and i’ve felt this way about him for almost three years now. i have a crush on him (and he’s even said “i love you” to me) even though he’s in a relationship… yeah. the love of my life is with someone else. but like, i want to see him happy, though, you know? i love him perhaps more so following october 7.

october 7. the day of that attack—the day, the very day—i baked my very first loaf of bread, a simple bloomer courtesy of paul hollywood, one of my influences in the culinary world: as the dough was proofing, i saw a huge horde of people posting about palestine and israel, and it reminded me of a guy who ran into a convenience store at the start of the pandemic and he yelled out, “can someone please tell me what the hell is going on?” that was my reaction to it all. i just wanted to know what had happened and no one would tell me… and a friend of mine finally said “pray for israel.” i asked what happened and she told me. i just foresaw everything unraveling from that point forward. so i took the bloomer out of the oven and it felt fated, like it was meant to be. my basic thought was “the world is going to need art and words, and also, people willing to get down and make things to eat”. this is going down fast. (in other words, my healing my body from itself and satisfying a kink had a point after all 😜).

and it might seem counterintuitive, but baking and cooking has actually helped me lose even more weight than i can ever imagine (besides weightlifting and aerobics and boxing and martial arts and yoga, of course). you might think that baking cakes and pies and cookies and making dinner every night would make me 300+ pounds tout suite, but it’s actually done the opposite (so, sorry, feeder community)—and if anything, i enjoy every cookie and slice of cake now. there’s no fad diets here or anything fancy with me, and even with 60 pounds lost i still have a chubby belly (i don’t mind, though—my stomach has been through a lot, it should keep *something*), so i’m definitely not a fitblr.

since october, i’ve felt this need to blog my journey in baking and cooking, and away from my personal blog, too. stuff i made, recipes i think of (and maybe some that need to be passed on, too?), and food i want to make.

my art blog is on here at nuagederose—i also have a therapy blog, theghostandthehealer—and my instagram is badmotorartist. if erotic band fiction (among other things) is your thing, my ao3 is josiebelladonna.

and yeah, i’m 30 and i think i found the proverbial missing jigsaw puzzle piece. age really is just a number!

[aitechbusiness]

Pet Technology: Innovations Revolutionizing Pet Care in the Digital Age

The pet business is flourishing. The American Pet Products Association reports that in 2023, pet owners in the US alone spent an astounding $103.6 billion on their feathered, scaled, or furry friends. The increased desire of pet owners to give their cherished animals the finest care possible is reflected in this spending boom.

Pet technology is a rapidly developing field that is altering the way we care for our pets, and it is driving this trend. Pet tech is changing pet care into a more convenient, proactive, and data-driven enterprise. Examples of this include automated feeders that guarantee proper portion management and wearable health monitors that measure activity levels and sleep habits.

We'll dive into the fascinating world of pet technology in this blog article, looking at how it's influencing many facets of pet care and what the future holds for this cutting-edge industry.

Elevate Your Pet's Care with Innovative Technology! 

Smart Solutions for Everyday Needs: How Pet Tech is Transforming Pet Care

Gone are the days of worrying about running out of kibble before you get home from work or wondering what your furry friend is up to while you're away. Pet tech offers a variety of smart solutions that cater to our everyday pet care needs, making life easier for both pet owners and their companions.

Automated Feeding and Portion Control

Automatic feeders are a game-changer for busy pet owners. These handy devices dispense pre-programmed portions of food at specific times throughout the day, eliminating the need for manual feeding and ensuring your pet receives consistent meals. This is particularly beneficial for pets who require strict portion control to maintain a healthy weight or manage medical conditions like diabetes.

Here's a closer look at the benefits of automatic feeders:

Convenience: Set it and forget it! Automatic feeders take the guesswork out of mealtimes, ensuring your pet is fed on time even when you're not around.

Portion Control: Prevent overfeeding, a common cause of obesity in pets, by dispensing precise amounts of food. This can be especially helpful for pets prone to weight gain.

Scheduled Feeding: Maintain a consistent feeding routine, which can be beneficial for a pet's digestive health and overall well-being.

Multiple Meal Dispensing: Some feeders allow for dispensing multiple meals throughout the day, which can be ideal for pets who require smaller, more frequent feedings.

Case Study: The Happy Pup with a Weight Problem

Max, a Labrador Retriever, was struggling with his weight. His owner, Sarah, noticed Max was constantly begging for food and seemed lethargic. The vet recommended portion control as a key part of Max's weight management plan. However, Sarah's busy work schedule made it difficult to stick to a consistent feeding routine.

The solution? An automatic feeder! Sarah programmed the feeder to dispense two smaller meals a day and noticed a significant improvement in Max's weight and energy levels.

Keeping an Eye on Your Furry Friend: Remote Monitoring and Pet Cameras.

Feeling anxious about leaving your pet home alone? Pet cameras offer peace of mind and a way to stay connected with your furry friend even when you're away. These Wi-Fi enabled cameras allow you to:

Monitor your pet remotely: Check in on your pet throughout the day using your smartphone, tablet, or computer.

Two-way audio: Talk to your pet and hear them respond, offering comfort and reducing separation anxiety.

Night vision: Keep an eye on your pet even in low light conditions.

Motion detection: Receive alerts if your pet triggers the motion sensor, allowing you to check for any unusual activity.

Pet cameras are not just for monitoring behavior; they can also be used for training purposes. For example, you can use the two-way audio feature to correct unwanted behaviors like barking or chewing remotely.

Elevate Your Pet's Care with Innovative Technology! 

Fitness Trackers for Fido (and Fluffy): Wearable Tech for Pets

Just like their human counterparts, pets can benefit from wearing wearable health trackers. These tiny devices, often attached to collars or harnesses, collect data on a pet's activity levels, sleep patterns, and even vital signs like heart rate and respiratory rate.

Here's how wearable tech can revolutionize pet care:

Track Activity Levels: Monitor your pet's daily activity levels and identify any changes that might signal a health issue, such as lethargy or decreased mobility.

Monitor Sleep Patterns: Track your pet's sleep quality and identify any disruptions that could indicate underlying health problems or stress.

Early Detection of Health Issues: Changes in activity levels, sleep patterns, and vital signs can be early indicators of health problems. Wearable trackers can help you identify these changes early on, allowing for prompt veterinary intervention.

Table: Examples of Features on Pet Wearable Trackers By providing valuable data and insights into your pet's health and well-being, wearable tech empowers you to make informed decisions about their care and ensure they live a long, healthy life.

Beyond Convenience: Pet Tech for Advanced Care and Well-being

Pet technology isn't just about convenience; it's also revolutionizing the way we approach pet healthcare. Innovative solutions are emerging that offer advanced care options and promote a pet's overall well-being.

Telemedicine for Pets: Remote Vet Consultations

Imagine having access to veterinary care for your pet without ever leaving your home. Telemedicine for pets is making this a reality. Through video chat consultations, pet owners can connect with licensed veterinarians for a variety of non-emergency situations, such as:

Discussing minor behavioral issues

Refills on medications

Follow-up consultations after a vet visit

Addressing minor skin or coat concerns

Benefits of Telemedicine for Pets:

Convenience: Schedule appointments at your convenience, eliminating the stress of travel for both you and your pet.

Cost-effective: Telemedicine consultations can be more affordable than traditional in-clinic visits.

Accessibility: Provides access to veterinary care for pet owners in remote locations or those with mobility limitations.

Elevate Your Pet's Care with Innovative Technology! 

AI-Powered Pet Care: Personalized Insights and Early Intervention

Artificial intelligence (AI) is making its way into the world of pet tech, offering exciting possibilities for personalized pet care. AI algorithms can analyze data collected from wearable trackers and pet cameras, providing valuable insights into a pet's health and behavior.

Here's how AI can revolutionize pet care:

Personalized Health Monitoring: AI can analyze data from wearables to identify patterns and trends specific to your pet, allowing for a more personalized approach to healthcare.

Early Detection of Health Issues: AI can detect subtle changes in vital signs or activity levels that might be missed by the human eye, enabling early intervention for potential health problems.

Predictive Analytics: Advanced AI applications might even be able to predict future health issues based on a pet's data, allowing for preventative measures.

Smart Homes for Happy Pets: Integrating Pet Tech into Your Smart Home System

The concept of a smart home isn't just for humans anymore. Pet tech can be seamlessly integrated into your smart home system, creating a more comfortable and convenient environment for your furry friend.

Imagine these possibilities:

Automatic pet doors: Grant your pet access to designated areas of your home or the outdoors when you're not around.

Temperature-controlled pet beds: Ensure your pet's comfort with a bed that automatically adjusts the temperature.

Self-cleaning litter boxes: Eliminate the chore of scooping the litter box with a self-cleaning model that operates on a timer or through sensor activation.

By integrating pet tech into your smart home system, you can create a more enriching and stress-free environment for your pet, contributing to their overall well-being.

The Future of Pet Technology: What's on the Horizon?

The future of pet technology is brimming with exciting possibilities that promise to further revolutionize the way we care for our animal companions. Here's a glimpse into what the future might hold:

Virtual Reality for Pet Entertainment: Imagine a world where your pet can explore virtual landscapes, chase virtual butterflies, or engage in interactive games – all from the comfort of your living room. VR experiences designed specifically for pets are on the horizon, offering mental stimulation and entertainment to combat boredom and destructive behaviors.

Robotic Pet Companions: For pet owners who struggle with loneliness or live in environments where traditional pets aren't allowed, robotic companions could offer a solution. These advanced robots could provide companionship, entertainment, and even basic care for pets.

Advanced Health Monitoring Systems: Expect even more sophisticated wearable health trackers and implantable technologies that monitor a wider range of vital signs and body functions in real-time. This data could provide invaluable insights into a pet's health and well-being, allowing for preventative measures and personalized treatment plans.

Pet-to-Human Communication Devices: While mind-reading technology might still be in the realm of science fiction, advancements in AI and biofeedback could lead to the development of devices that translate a pet's emotions and needs into understandable signals for their human companions.

These are just a few examples of the exciting possibilities that pet technology holds for the future. As technology continues to evolve, we can expect even more innovative solutions that will not only enhance our pets' lives but also deepen the bond between humans and animals.

Conclusion

Pet technology is here to stay and has an indisputable influence on pet care; it is no longer a futuristic concept. Pet technology is revolutionizing the way we look after our furry (or feathery, or scaled) family members. It does this by handling anything from making sure our dogs are fed and amused while we are away to giving useful data for proactive treatment. We may anticipate much more fascinating technological advancements in the future that will improve our beloved dogs' happiness and well-being. 

Elevate Your Pet's Care with Innovative Technology!

[courtenaywrites]

when the fat girl becomes a scapegoat for her own death

I was as thin as a board as a kid, and I didn’t even pay attention to it. It wasn’t on my radar at all. All I knew was that I didn’t think I was pretty, and I hated that everyone else seemed to hate me, which in turn made me loathe myself even more. They’d kick me when I wasn’t looking. They would tell me I couldn’t join in with their games, and I would run to the corner of the playground and sob.

As I got older, and when the hormones had kicked in, I discovered what it meant to be uncomfortable in your own skin. I wasn’t a skinny girl feeding into heroin chic, I was a growing girl who had no interest in the things other girls were. Boys felt like bugs, and I just wanted a man who could entertain my interests in Shakespeare and Sylvia Plath without asking stupid questions like: “What are you? A nerd?”

I remember all the fashion magazines that would highlight (in red) areas on a celebrity’s body in where they had gained weight. Yet, when said celebrity would see the headline, they would lose all the weight, and the magazine would feel vindicated in the process. They would even go so far as to ask them for diet tips.

When I was in high school (from 2008 onwards), gossip and fashion magazines were still in their prime. My mother used to buy Closer and OK, and inside of those glossy pages were hoards of damaging statements.

In 2023, we think we have moved on, but I see the same mentality over and over again. Whenever a newspaper reports on the supposed obesity ‘crisis’, every person who struggles with their weight rolls their eyes. This kind of language reinforces the idea that being larger makes you a problem.

I recently went to the Doctor about a heart problem, and despite me explicitly stating that this had come on after a chest infection, he began talking about my body unprompted. He spoke of how “a greater body mass puts strain on the heart,” and would absolutely not listen to my concerns. In his mind, the only reason for the problem that developed after an infection is that I’m too fat. After my appointment, I saw a nurse from the surgery smoking outside.

This is a common experience. Before this, I visited a different Doctor for an issue with my periods that has been happening for fifteen years. She told me that all my symptoms were because I am fat, and all that I needed to do was lose weight and I would be fine.

Online isn’t far from this same reality as every celebrity who is criticised for being overweight seems to succumb to the pressure and returns to debut their new ‘look’. Most recently, Billie Eilish talked about her weight in a way that places her previous body in a glass cage.

Adele was fairly hostile about how people reacted to her weight loss, failing to understand what that does for representation. Formerly larger celebrities seem to treat their former selves with disdain, thus feeding into the toxic skinny mentality of the world.

I can’t escape it. When I step out my door, I am faced with gyms, people talking about the gym, diet tips, adverts for Weight Watchers, runners, walkers, cyclists, and more. The world is obsessed. No conversation can be had without someone mentioning working out or starting a diet.

It might not have been so bad if I wasn’t dismissed by Doctors because I am larger. I could be dying, but all they see is the body they have been trained to hate. When a fat person comes to their office, their glasses steam up and all they see is a scapegoat.

I am tired of waking up every day and feeling like a stranger in my own body. A ‘beautiful’ home can hide many faults. We don’t fit into eras. We are not coquettes in the pockets of men. We are not Didion-esque girls who find ourselves at a bus stop with nowhere to go, only to be offered a nice place to stay.

We are told to stop eating. We are told to “make healthier choices” such as having sugar-free frosting on your birthday cake that ends up giving you diarrhoea. Instead of celebrating, you end up staring at the cake like it’s a loaded gun.

TikTokers post videos of “gut healthy” cookies with probiotic-enriched ice cream sandwiched between them. Everything good in our world has been tainted by our obsession with frailty because Sam Levinson’s ‘The Idol’ wouldn’t work if Lily-Rose Depp was a size 20, right?

…No. Her breakdown on the stage in her blood-stained heels would be seen as piggish because it’s obviously her weight stopping her from performing, and look at the snot running down her fat face. Her mother hitting her with a hairbrush is accepted because she shouldn’t have let herself get so fat.

When my mother reads the eulogy at my funeral, they will only remember how the pallbearers struggled to lift my coffin. “Couldn’t they have chopped her up?” they’ll say from the pews while my mother talks of what I did outside of what I looked like.

Remember all of this when I am lying on the slab in a morgue and they are marking my death down as justice served.

[suzilight]

Sucralose aka Splenda Is Genotoxic | June 2023

Me: Big Food sells us low quality at high prices that makes us gradually sicker then Big Pharma sells us high priced meds to control the symptoms until we need Big Hospital and a funeral. Think I'm exaggerating? Read on.

"When we exposed sucralose and sucralose-6-acetate to gut epithelial tissues—the tissue that lines your gut wall—we found that both chemicals cause 'leaky gut.' Basically, they make the wall of the gut more permeable. The chemicals damage the 'tight junctions,' or interfaces, where cells in the gut wall connect to each other.

"A leaky gut is problematic, because it means that things that would normally be flushed out of the body in feces are instead leaking out of the gut and being absorbed into the bloodstream."

"We found that gut cells exposed to sucralose-6-acetate had increased activity in genes related to oxidative stress, inflammation and carcinogenicity,"

"To put this in context, the European Food Safety Authority has a threshold of toxicological concern for all genotoxic substances of 0.15 micrograms per person per day," Schiffman says. "Our work suggests that the trace amounts of sucralose-6-acetate in a single, daily sucralose-sweetened drink exceed that threshold. And that's not even accounting for the amount of sucralose-6-acetate produced as metabolites after people consume sucralose."

Harvard says: "Some studies show that leaky gut may be associated with other autoimmune diseases (lupus, type 1 diabetes, multiple sclerosis), chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia, arthritis, allergies, asthma, acne, obesity, and even mental illness." 

Splenda.com says: "Today, the Splenda brand is the most recognizable and iconic low-calorie sweetener brand in the world, having sold more than 100 billion yellow packets since its launch in 1992."

Michael Zeece, in Introduction to the Chemistry of Food, 2020 says: "Granulated sucralose is mixed with fillers to provide a measure for measure substitution with table sugar (sucrose). The powdered form of sucralose contains 90% bulking agents such as maltodextrin, that are a metabolizable form of carbohydrate. A 50/50 mixture of sucrose and sucralose, plus a bulking agent, is available for baking applications. This mixture reduces caloric content and enables browning reactions in baking applications."  Source

Me: Wow. Ok. 50/50 sugar/Splenda plus bulking agents for baking. Would that mean commercial baking? Processed foods? YES!!!

"Sucralose is also highly stable at elevated temperatures that are often used in food, beverage, and drug manufacturing processes so that product sweetness levels can be maintained following cooking, baking, and/or pasteurization. Sucralose also has excellent stability in low-pH products so that sweetness degradation is not a determining factor in the shelf-life of such products."

FDA says "Sucralose is a general-purpose sweetener found in various foods, including baked goods, beverages, chewing gum, gelatins, and frozen dairy desserts." 

By weight, Sucralose is about 600 times sweeter than sucrose (sugar).

 Me: Even if I don't buy or use Splenda or drink diet sodas there is a good chance that I'm still eating more than 0.15 micrograms of sucralose in "shelf stable" cookies, pastries, bread or ice cream. Big Food cuts in Sucralose/Splenda because it gives big sweetness and probably costs less than natural sugar/sucrose.

The FDA approved it for general use in 1999. They suggest it for diabetic people! No wonder Celiac Disease, Crohn's disease, and irritable bowel syndrome have steadily increased.

Never mind the Leaky Gut diseases or the malignant tumors, Splenda is calorie-free. /facepalm

[gatekeeper-watchman]

Daily Devotionals for August 26, 2023| Proverbs: God's Wisdom for Daily Living Devotional Scripture:

Proverbs 23:19-21 (KJV): 19 Hear thou, my son, and be wise, and guide thine heart in the way. 20 Be not among winebibbers; among riotous eaters of flesh: 21 For the drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty: and drowsiness shall clothe a man with rags. Proverbs 23:19-21 (AMP): 19 Hear, my son, and be wise, and direct your mind in the way(of the Lord). 20 Do not associate with winebibbers; be not among them nor gluttonous eaters of meat; 21 For the drunkard and the glutton shall come to poverty, and drowsiness shall clothe a man with rags.

Thought for the Day

When we find a subject mentioned multiple times in the Bible, it is because it has severe implications. Through Solomon, our heavenly Father again warns us to shun pleasure-seeking drunkards and gluttons whose sins lead to poverty. Hell is another subject that has strong warnings attached to it; and drunkenness, gluttony, and other lusts can lead a person there. "Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God" (1 Corinthians 6:9-10).

Jesus warned people that one could go to hell for continuing in their sin. For emphasis, He repeated three times that hell is a terrible place of continual torment: "And if thy hand offend thee, cut it off: thee should enter into life maimed, than having two hands to go into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched: Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched. And if thy foot offends thee, cut it off: thee should enter halt into life, than having two feet to be cast into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched: Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched. And if thine eye offends thee, pluck it out: they should enter into the kingdom of God with one eye, than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire: Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched" (Mark 9:43-48).

Whether as part of a wildlife of pleasure or to dull emotional pain, the drunkard wastes his time and money on alcohol instead of improving himself and working hard to prosper. Drunkenness makes him unreliable and impairs his performance at work. Hangovers make him sick and cause him to miss work. Alcoholism can destroy his life. Gluttony is also a major sin of affluent societies. Americans currently suffer from many obesity-related diseases. Many Christians die prematurely because they over-indulge with food. The Bible teaches self-control in all things (Galatians 5:22-23), the lack of which could cost one's health or life.

The antidote to over-eating and drinking is to take positive action and direct our minds toward the Lord (Proverbs 23:19). It is not enough to turn away from sinful actions; we must also pursue God, in whom we perform the good works God prepared for us to walk in (Ephesians 2:10).

Prayer Devotional for the Day

Dear heavenly Father, I thank you for all of the good things You have given us to eat and drink. Lord, help me not to over-indulge in those things, causing them to become sinful. Help me to be a good witness by a moderate lifestyle. Lord, in a world with so many choices and temptations, empower me to choose the right things and resist those things that are bad for me. May my physical body bring glory to You, as well as my spiritual life. Remove all infirmities and strengthen me physically so that I might serve You better. I ask this in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

[charlesandmartine]

Thursday 22nd June 2023

Overslept. Now I know for any trip research is the key to successful outcomes. The main event of the day came upon us as a total surprise bearing in mind the expectations of an 'at sea' day are automatically set at low. Captain announced just after the sunny side up eggs were delivered to my plate that the fog was lifting and the sun was breaking through providing stunning views of the Hubbard Glacier and he strongly advised shifting to an upper deck to get an eyeful before it melted. Advice I have to say that fell on the totally deaf ears of Mrs Blobby who had reserved her place in the hot tub and wasn't going to squeeze her way out of it for anyone. The Hubbard Glacier is some 80 miles in length but we were able to view its leading edge where it touched down to the water's edge. Here the glacial cliff face was 3 miles wide and 400 feet high! When the sun shone, it's rays diffusing through the ice, filtering all but the pale blue frequencies adding to its majestic structures. We were looking directly into water frozen in time formed thousands perhaps millions of years ago making us in some way feel we should not really be there at all witnessing this. In the silence, ships engines inaudible, water becalmed and still, icebergs floating inanimate on the surface and below, no visible wildlife, it became quite an eerie and desolate place; awesome maybe. The lumps of ice and small icebergs littering the surface all around us lay as testimony to the indulgence of recent generations causing the breakup of this ancient natural phenomena. The commentator described the breaking off of the ice as calving and conjectured we might be 'lucky' enough to see more of it actually happen! Further trivialising the experience declaring it worthy of an episode of 'Game of Thrones'!

After a small lunch, we took a turn around the deck. 12 turns to be more accurate; approximately 4 miles, with extra time on two occasions due to whale spotting. First spotting was of two animals, second there must have been five or six. At least three other cruise ships were seen heading to the glacier. This juxtaposition of cause and effect of climate change is challenging. Then a short break before a trip to the gym to burn sufficient calories to justify the pudding at dinner.

Great dining day today. Maine Lobster tonight and Baked Alaska.

This is the day the world was told the fate of 'Titan' the tourist exploration vessel searching for Titanic.

A reflective day!

ps. We sit alongside 2 other tables for 2 in the dining room. Both are inhabited by American couples. These people each order 2 starters, 2 or 3 main courses and 2 or 3 desserts. They are all obese. Tonight one commented that we only had one of each and accused us of being SO Un-American! Oh? Possibly because thankfully we have been spared the misfortune of being born American. It appears that of 2500 guests, we might be the only English.