The First new dump of October and boy is it uninteresting.
Trump said something…..Biden promised something…..a wall is a wall….House turned into a bigger circus than it was a week ago…..and Israel is doing what it does best….killing Palestinians.
Onward.
First let me begin with a thought….how do you get one of those grants to study stuff?
MIT got a grant to study the Oreo cookie…..
Your favorite cookie now has a new field of science dedicated to it: Oreology. This novel field of science attempts to understand the flow and fracture of the iconic Oreo cookie to find the best eating experience, including whether it’s actually possible to separate the two sides of the cookie sandwich with an equal amount of creme filling on each. In a study published in April 2022, in the journal American Institute of Physics, a group of scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology dug deep into the probability of achieving an equal creme ratio in an Oreo when twisting it open.
Speaking to VICE, study author Crystal Owens—a Ph.D. candidate in mechanical engineering at MIT—explained what inspired her to embark on this journey. “I was personally motivated by a desire to solve a challenge that had puzzled me as a child: how to open an Oreo and get creme evenly arranged on both wafers?” Owens shared. “I preferred the taste of the cookies with the creme exposed. If I got a bite of wafer alone it was too dry for me, and if I dunked it in milk the wafer would fall apart too fast.”
Keeping with the food meme….
In a recent randomized, controlled human study, consuming grapes for 16 weeks improved key markers of eye health in older adults. The study, published in Food & Function looked at the impact of regular consumption of grapes on macular pigment accumulation and other biomarkers of eye health. This is the first human study on this subject, and the results reinforce earlier, preliminary studies where consuming grapes was found to protect retinal structure and function.
Science has shown that an aging population has a higher risk of eye disease and vision problems. Key risk factors for eye disease include oxidative stress and high levels of ocular advanced glycation end products (AGEs). AGEs may contribute to many eye diseases by damaging the vascular components of the retina, impairing cellular function, and causing oxidative stress.
Dietary antioxidants can decrease oxidative stress and inhibit the formation of AGEs, with possible beneficial effects on the retina, such as an improvement in Macular Pigment Optical Density (MPOD). Grapes are a natural source of antioxidants and other polyphenols.
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-10-grape-consumption-benefit-eye-health.html
Does wine count?
Do you enjoy singing in the shower?
Admit it: You’ve sung in the shower. Maybe it was a whispery hum, a pensive warble, a sonorous croon, or a ragged, out-of-tune belt, but you’ve definitely sung in the shower. Everyone’s got their favorite shower song, probably something kept safe by a shower’s solitude, or that showcases what you swear are overlooked skills. Some might opt for a Taylor Swift bop, others might roar their best bestial metal growl, while the truly daring might try something like Puccini’s immense and grand “Nessun dorma” aria from the opera “Turandot.” But no matter what, most people are certain — 100% — that their shower singing is absolutely, totally, completely awesome.
Well, we’ve got good news and bad news. The good news: Your voice really does sound better in the shower. The bad news: Your voice doesn’t sound better in the shower because you’re a better singer in the shower. You’ve got the exact same voice inside and outside of a wet, warm, and cozy environment. The difference rests in the environment itself, which is typically boxy, contained, and full of hard surfaces like tiles. As Elite Daily explains, this kind of room is great for one very specific vocal effect: reverb. For audiophiles in the house, reverb is an easy way to make a voice sound better when recording that isn’t cheating, aka autotune. For everyone else, it’s a kind of echo attached to a vocal line that makes a voice sound fuller, more resonant, and less out of tune.
Read More: https://www.grunge.com/1409533/scientific-reason-you-think-your-singing-sounds-better-in-shower/
When you get a cold does it seem to last forever?
There maybe a reason.
As far as acute respiratory infections go, lingering symptoms aren’t just for COVID-19, researchers have found. “Long colds” and their symptoms can last more than four weeks, according to a study published Friday in the Lancet‘s EClinicalMedicine journal. “Our findings may chime with the experience of people who have struggled with prolonged symptoms after having a respiratory infection despite testing negative for COVID-19 on a nose or throat swab,” said Adrian Martineau, a clinical professor at Queen Mary University of London, where the research was conducted.
The findings may mean that non-COVID acute respiratory infections such as colds, influenza, and pneumonia can have long-lasting health effects that haven’t been recognized, the Guardian reports. Researchers haven’t seen indications that the effects are as severe as those of long COVID, but the infections caused prolonged symptoms at the same rate—22%. Certain typical long COVID issues involving taste and smell, for example, were less common with long colds than with long COVID, per NBC News. The severity of the infection is one indicator, but Martineau said further research may uncover other reasons the lasting symptoms affect some people more than others, enabling treatments to be developed.
Do you have one of those Medicare Advantage deals? If so please read this carefully.
A report published Wednesday estimates that privately run, government-funded Medicare Advantage plans are overcharging U.S. taxpayers by up to $140 billion per year, a sum that could be used to completely eliminate Medicare Part B premiums or fully fund Medicare’s prescription drug program.
Physicians for a National Health Program (PNHP), an advocacy group that supports transitioning to a single-payer health insurance system, found that Medicare Advantage (MA) overbills the federal government by at least $88 billion per year, based on 2022 spending.
That lower-end estimate accounts for common MA practices such as upcoding, whereby diagnoses are piled onto a patient’s risk assessment to make them appear sicker than they actually are, resulting in a larger payment from the federal government.
https://www.commondreams.org/news/medicare-advantage-overcharging
If you had to guess the two states that have the most banned books…..which two would you pick….
In many ways, it’s amazing to think that books can be banned at all. But such is the power of the written word, personal expression, knowledge otherwise unknown, and connecting to others by reading their stories, whether true or fiction.
Like many other countries, the United States — a land where free speech is enshrined in its constitution — has banned books as long as it has printed them. Many such books have made their way to court, like James Joyce’s “Ulysses” in 1933. Many are also considered literary masterpieces, like “To Kill a Mockingbird,” “The Color Purple,” “Beloved,” “The Catcher in the Rye,” “Of Mice and Men,” and hundreds of others, which can at least make banned authors take comfort in their company.
Every year, more books get banned as more books get published. Oftentimes, banned books target children and are considered unsuitable because of language or sexual content, which is admittedly far more understandable than banning adult books. As The Washington Post describes, this is especially the case for children’s picture books. But even for adults, Arizona State University cites numerous reasons why books don’t make their way into libraries or stores, including religious or racial reasons, depictions of “witchcraft,” certain sexual content, political biases, etc. And in the U.S., two states far outstrip the rest in terms of the number of banned books: Texas and Florida. Many of their banned books target children or tackle racial issues.
Read More: https://www.grunge.com/1412008/two-states-with-the-most-banned-books/
How many guessed the 2 states? It was a no brainer.
There you have my ‘Dump’ for today…..please go out and enjoy your weekend.
As always….Be Well and Be Safe….
I Read, I Write, You Know
“lego ergo scribo”