Another week has been put in the history books and yet the news went on and on….and not all of it was about that fool in the White House.
Local–A bit cooler temps and yet not a damn drop of rain in 2+ months….any longer and we will become the next desert for the planet.
Personal–Some good news….I got a clean bill of health from my gastro doctor….at least something is going in the right direction.
I begin today with one of my favorite beverages…..wine….
Familiar terms such as “eco-friendly” and “sustainable” are among the environmental marketing claims drawing closer scrutiny for wine producers selling into the European Union.
Those claims require clear explanations and supporting evidence under anti-greenwashing rules that began applying September 27.
Consumer goods sold throughout the bloc fall within the scope of Empowering Consumers for the Green Transition, formally Directive (EU) 2024/825, Vinetur reported.
To strengthen environmental-marketing standards, the directive introduced in 2024 amended two existing laws: the Consumer Rights Directive and the EU’s Unfair Commercial Practices Directive.
Sustainability badges without backing from an approved certification scheme are prohibited. The rules also bar irrelevant environmental claims and generic claims offered without explanation.
According to Vinetur, the regulatory push follows a 2020 study that classified over half of the EU’s environmental claims as vague, misleading, or unfounded.
Wine labels can no longer lean on vague ‘eco-friendly’ claims under new EU rules
A case for a prescription for….fruit….
Hawaii is about to test whether an Rx filled at the farmers market can trim both waistlines and medical bills. Beginning as soon as January, more than 100,000 Medicaid patients in the Aloha State could get so-called produce prescriptions worth $50 a week for fresh fruits, vegetables, and proteins like fish, eggs, and chicken under a new “Food Is Medicine” program, reports the AP. The federally funded effort targets chronic, diet-related conditions in a state where roughly a third of households struggle to access healthy food, with areas like Puna and West Oahu considered food deserts.
“If you don’t have enough money to get food, then your stress is high, and then it’s really hard to control your blood pressure,” notes the University of Hawaii’s Monica Esquivel, per a release. Advocates say steering at least some of that spending to local farms could pump millions into Hawaii’s economy and support nearly 1,000 jobs, reports the AP.
Early pilot programs, meanwhile, have shown substantial weight loss and drops in blood sugar in patients. “It’s really a no-brainer,” says Alicia Higa of the Wai’anae Coast Comprehensive Health Center. “If there’s an opportunity to give food as medicine to our people, we should absolutely be using that money to support the local farmers. We’ll have an increased food supply, and we’ll be much better off.”
This sounds like a damn good idea.
Us old farts have a tendency to nod off from time to time….is this good?
Sneaky midday dozes might be telling you more than that you’re simply tired. A Johns Hopkins–led study tracking 995 Americans 65 and older for up to a decade found that those who napped most days or daily faced a 48% higher chance of developing dementia than peers who rarely or never napped, even after accounting for health, nighttime sleep, and other factors. Additionally, dozing off without meaning to was tied to a 39% higher dementia risk, and naps of 30 minutes or less were linked to a roughly 40% increase, per a release.
Researchers stress that the study, which relied on self-reported data, doesn’t prove naps cause dementia. They also acknowledge inconsistent findings across studies, some of which found longer naps to be more of a problem. The takeaway, per Neuroscience News, is that there is likely a complex “bidirectional” relationship between daytime sleepiness and neurodegeneration, with dementia disrupting regions of the brain that control sleep and wakefulness. The authors of the study, published in the Journal of Gerontology: Medical Sciences, stress that shifts in napping habits may serve as an early warning sign.
Since I suffer from insomnia thanx to pain….does this mean when I nod off I am doing harm to my brain?
Re-think that visit to a salon…..
I recently went to a hair salon and admitted to my very kind stylist that it had been a few years since my last visit. I needn’t have said anything, of course, the evidence was written in my wonky DIY lengths, but it’s a fact I was reminded of just as she was lowering my head into a sink.
“Beauty parlour syndrome,” my irritatingly selective memory whispered to me. “Say goodbye.”
Evidently, I lived to tell the tale, but it resurrected a syndrome I hadn’t thought about in a while. One that strikes us down during an activity that should, otherwise, be extremely relaxing.
(sorry but there is a paywall)
This is for all men that are worried about hair loss….
About 3,500 years ago the ancient Egyptians were among the tackle hair loss by preparing a herbal mixture made of hippo and crocodile fat to treat it. Nobody knows whether it actually worked, but humans have since developed numerous treatments for the hair loss, with not very much to show for, despite the dozens of approved medications, regenerative therapies, and surgical techniques.
However, now a newly developed electric comb has produced shocking results in mice, restoring nearly all their lost hair within a month and outperforming conventional minoxidil treatment.
Called Detangle, the device is developed by a team of Chinese researchers. It uses electrical stimulation to deliver therapeutic genetic material deep into hair follicles, where it can encourage regrowth while tackling one of the biological drivers of hair loss.
Then there is the story of Iggy and Lemmy…..
Two crows named Iggy and Lemmy just beat humans at a game of mental speed.
Their task was simple: watch a screen full of moving dots and figure out which way they were going. The crows made their decisions in less than a quarter of a second—roughly twice as fast as humans and other primates in comparable experiments.
And they weren’t just guessing.
Now, scientists have peered inside their brains to find out how. What they discovered is surprising: despite having brains built very differently from ours, crows appear to use remarkably similar neural machinery to make decisions. But they’re quicker than us.
At the University of Tübingen in Germany, neuroscientists Philipp Schmidbauer and Andreas Nieder trained two carrion crows, Iggy and Lemmy, to inspect a cloud of white dots on a touchscreen. Some traveled together to the left, right, up or down. Others wandered randomly.
That does it for me on this Saturday…..I hope everyone has a relaxing day and few smiles along the way…..and as always….Be Well and Be Smart….
I Read, I Write, You Know
“lego ergo scribo”