An excerpt from National Geographic -
You Can Smell When Someone's Sick—Here's How
The curious case of a woman who can smell Parkinson’s reminds us our noses are our first defense against illness.
By Erika Engelhaupt
Recently, the case of the woman who can smell Parkinson’s brought attention to the idea of sniffing for disease. Parkinson’s is notoriously tricky to diagnose; by the time most people learn they have it, they’ve already lost half of the dopamine-producing brain cells the disease attacks. But about six years before her husband Les was diagnosed, Joy Milne noticed that he smelled odd.
Les had a “sort of woody, musky odor,” Milne told the Telegraph. Years later, in a room full of Parkinson’s patients, she realized the smell wasn’t unique to Les. All the people with Parkinson’s smelled that way.
She mentioned it to a Parkinson’s researcher in Edinburgh named Tilo Kunath, who mentioned it to his colleague, analytical chemist Perdita Barran. They decided the well-meaning Mrs. Milne may have just noticed the characteristic smell of old people; “We talked ourselves out of it,” Barran says.
That could have been the end of it. But another biochemist encouraged the pair to track Milne down and try a blind T-shirt test: She sniffed six sweaty tees from people diagnosed with Parkinson’s, and six from healthy controls. Milne correctly identified which six had Parkinson’s, but she also tagged one of the control subjects as having the disease.
Despite that error, Barran was intrigued—all the more so eight months later, when the same supposedly healthy control subject Milne had identified was diagnosed with Parkinson’s.
https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2018/01/smell-sickness-parkinsons-disease-health-science/
Friday, January 19, 2018
Thursday, January 18, 2018
Repurposing Roadkill
Excerpts from the Atlas Obscura -
How Alaska’s Roadkill Gets a Second Life as Dinner
A unique system turns moose killed in collisions into meals.
BY MARK HAY
But in the ‘70s, Alaska developed a clever system to turn this burden into a boon: The state created a roadkill salvage program. In this system, the state contacts citizens and charities every time a trooper finds or is alerted to a big animal dead on the road. Soon thereafter, these groups and individuals swoop in, spirit the corpses away, and turn them into hundreds of thousands of pounds of edible meat every year. In theory, this lean red flesh is as versatile as beef, but it’s typically hacked into stew chuck or ground down for use in burgers and sausages. Game meats, which are wiry to start with and ever tougher with age, benefit from being being broken up and mixed with their own fat.
~~~~~~~~~~
Salvaging roadside moose probably wasn’t a radical or challenging idea in 1970s Alaska. People familiar with game meats, as many in the state were and are, know how to tell when an animal is diseased or when meat’s been corrupted by heat, time, or damage to internal organs. With that knowledge, roadkill isn’t disgusting or dangerous. It is, as Buck Peterson, a longtime writer on American “cuisine de asphalt,” puts it, “a gift.”
That’s especially true for moose. Though it’s not sold in supermarkets, moose is widely coveted and consumed in Alaska, with local hunters harvesting and divvying up millions of pounds of flesh every year. And even one good animal can feed one man for about a year. “Everybody sees the value in 200 to 400 pounds of high-quality, edible meat,” says Del Frate. Especially in a state with high (and rising) food insecurity, no one wants to waste that resource.
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/moose-salvage-network-alaska
How Alaska’s Roadkill Gets a Second Life as Dinner
A unique system turns moose killed in collisions into meals.
BY MARK HAY
But in the ‘70s, Alaska developed a clever system to turn this burden into a boon: The state created a roadkill salvage program. In this system, the state contacts citizens and charities every time a trooper finds or is alerted to a big animal dead on the road. Soon thereafter, these groups and individuals swoop in, spirit the corpses away, and turn them into hundreds of thousands of pounds of edible meat every year. In theory, this lean red flesh is as versatile as beef, but it’s typically hacked into stew chuck or ground down for use in burgers and sausages. Game meats, which are wiry to start with and ever tougher with age, benefit from being being broken up and mixed with their own fat.
~~~~~~~~~~
Salvaging roadside moose probably wasn’t a radical or challenging idea in 1970s Alaska. People familiar with game meats, as many in the state were and are, know how to tell when an animal is diseased or when meat’s been corrupted by heat, time, or damage to internal organs. With that knowledge, roadkill isn’t disgusting or dangerous. It is, as Buck Peterson, a longtime writer on American “cuisine de asphalt,” puts it, “a gift.”
That’s especially true for moose. Though it’s not sold in supermarkets, moose is widely coveted and consumed in Alaska, with local hunters harvesting and divvying up millions of pounds of flesh every year. And even one good animal can feed one man for about a year. “Everybody sees the value in 200 to 400 pounds of high-quality, edible meat,” says Del Frate. Especially in a state with high (and rising) food insecurity, no one wants to waste that resource.
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/moose-salvage-network-alaska
History Lesson
An excerpt from the Atlas Obscura -
Who Really Designed the American Dime?
The controversy that has long roiled the coin world.
BY CHRISTINA DJOSSA
WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME you looked—really looked—at a dime? It is the smallest coin in U.S. circulation, so it takes a keen eye to see the very subtle “JS” just beneath Franklin D. Roosevelt’s truncated neck. These are the initials of John Sinnock, the U.S. Mint’s Chief Engraver from 1925 to 1947, who is credited with sculpting the profile of the 32nd president. However, institutions such as the Smithsonian American Art Museum—and even Roosevelt’s son—credit another sculptor with inspiring the design: Selma Burke, the illustrious Harlem Renaissance sculptor. So where is credit due? The answer is … complicated.
In 1943, 43-year-old Selma Burke won a Commission of Fine Arts competition and a rare opportunity to sculpt the president’s likeness for the new Recorder of Deeds Building in Washington, D.C. Burke, renowned for her Booker T. Washington bust, ran into some problems, since she didn’t feel that photographs captured Roosevelt’s stature. So the sculptor wrote to the White House to request a live-sketch session. The administration, to her utter shock, agreed.
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/who-designed-american-dime-selma-burke-franklin-roosevelt
Who Really Designed the American Dime?
The controversy that has long roiled the coin world.
BY CHRISTINA DJOSSA
 |
| Selma Burke won a competition to create a relief sculpture of Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1943. JOHN W. MOSLEY PHOTOGRAPH COLLECTION, CHARLES L. BLOCKSON AFRO-AMERICAN COLLECTION, TEMPLE UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES, PHILADELPHIA, PA |
WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME you looked—really looked—at a dime? It is the smallest coin in U.S. circulation, so it takes a keen eye to see the very subtle “JS” just beneath Franklin D. Roosevelt’s truncated neck. These are the initials of John Sinnock, the U.S. Mint’s Chief Engraver from 1925 to 1947, who is credited with sculpting the profile of the 32nd president. However, institutions such as the Smithsonian American Art Museum—and even Roosevelt’s son—credit another sculptor with inspiring the design: Selma Burke, the illustrious Harlem Renaissance sculptor. So where is credit due? The answer is … complicated.
In 1943, 43-year-old Selma Burke won a Commission of Fine Arts competition and a rare opportunity to sculpt the president’s likeness for the new Recorder of Deeds Building in Washington, D.C. Burke, renowned for her Booker T. Washington bust, ran into some problems, since she didn’t feel that photographs captured Roosevelt’s stature. So the sculptor wrote to the White House to request a live-sketch session. The administration, to her utter shock, agreed.
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/who-designed-american-dime-selma-burke-franklin-roosevelt
A Knitted Village
From Atlas Obscura -
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/entire-northern-ireland-village-knitted-wool-crochet-cloughmills-county-antrim
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/entire-northern-ireland-village-knitted-wool-crochet-cloughmills-county-antrim
A Guide to Buying Appliances
An excerpt from the Washington Post -
Buying an appliance? Here’s how to get the best bargain.
By Kevin Brasler
Fortunately, Checkbook has identified some area stores that usually serve their customers well, and by using our simple shopping tips you’ll pay the lowest prices.
To help you separate the good stores from the not-so-good ones, through a special arrangement, Washington Post readers can access Checkbook’s ratings of local appliance stores free through Feb. 16 by visiting checkbook.org/WashingtonPost/Appliances.
Start by deciding on the models you wish to buy. There are a few excellent sources that provide independent buying advice. Consumer Reports regularly evaluates appliances on quality issues, including reliability, and offers advice on the pros and cons of configurations, designs, features and options. The U.S. Department of Energy’s Energy Star program provides lists and energy-usage data on certified appliances.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/where-we-live/wp/2018/01/16/buying-an-appliance-heres-how-to-get-the-best-bargain/?utm_term=.af7f2be60bb1
Buying an appliance? Here’s how to get the best bargain.
By Kevin Brasler
Fortunately, Checkbook has identified some area stores that usually serve their customers well, and by using our simple shopping tips you’ll pay the lowest prices.
To help you separate the good stores from the not-so-good ones, through a special arrangement, Washington Post readers can access Checkbook’s ratings of local appliance stores free through Feb. 16 by visiting checkbook.org/WashingtonPost/Appliances.
Start by deciding on the models you wish to buy. There are a few excellent sources that provide independent buying advice. Consumer Reports regularly evaluates appliances on quality issues, including reliability, and offers advice on the pros and cons of configurations, designs, features and options. The U.S. Department of Energy’s Energy Star program provides lists and energy-usage data on certified appliances.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/where-we-live/wp/2018/01/16/buying-an-appliance-heres-how-to-get-the-best-bargain/?utm_term=.af7f2be60bb1
Calculating the Cost of College
An excerpt from the Washington Post -
These 31 colleges — including Yale — are now using a fast and easy financial aid calculator
By Nick Anderson
When his two sons were growing up, a college professor named Phillip Levine found himself 10 years ago asking a question on the minds of parents perennially worried about the price of higher education: Would they qualify for financial aid?
Levine, a Wellesley College economist, was frustrated to learn there were no easy answers beyond the scary sticker prices and pledges from certain colleges that they would meet the need of students they admit.
“How can you expect people to make educated decisions about the right thing to do when they have absolutely no idea what the cost is?” Levine said. “It’s crazy.”
So Levine set out to build a tool that would provide some quick and reliable answers. On Wednesday, Yale University and 15 other schools announced that they would use a version of his calculator now known as MyinTuition. (Get it?) That brought the total involved in his nonprofit initiative to 31, including Wellesley, which in 2013 became the first to use Levine’s calculator.
https://myintuition.org
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/grade-point/wp/2018/01/17/these-31-colleges-including-yale-are-now-using-a-fast-and-easy-financial-aid-calculator/?utm_term=.ef099048b5b5
These 31 colleges — including Yale — are now using a fast and easy financial aid calculator
By Nick Anderson
When his two sons were growing up, a college professor named Phillip Levine found himself 10 years ago asking a question on the minds of parents perennially worried about the price of higher education: Would they qualify for financial aid?
Levine, a Wellesley College economist, was frustrated to learn there were no easy answers beyond the scary sticker prices and pledges from certain colleges that they would meet the need of students they admit.
“How can you expect people to make educated decisions about the right thing to do when they have absolutely no idea what the cost is?” Levine said. “It’s crazy.”
So Levine set out to build a tool that would provide some quick and reliable answers. On Wednesday, Yale University and 15 other schools announced that they would use a version of his calculator now known as MyinTuition. (Get it?) That brought the total involved in his nonprofit initiative to 31, including Wellesley, which in 2013 became the first to use Levine’s calculator.
https://myintuition.org
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/grade-point/wp/2018/01/17/these-31-colleges-including-yale-are-now-using-a-fast-and-easy-financial-aid-calculator/?utm_term=.ef099048b5b5
Wednesday, January 17, 2018
Pot Docs Making a Positive Impact
An excerpt from the Washington Post -
A family of doctors helps reinvent medical marijuana
By Justin Wm. Moyer
The Knoxes are a clan of four doctors living in Oregon and California who specialize in medical marijuana. They seem to be doing quite well selling something that is illegal in many states, working with those they know best.
“We’re all fighting the same fight,” said Janice Knox, the founding doctor behind American Cannabinoid Clinics in Portland, Ore. — and the mother of two fellow physicians and the wife of the other. “I think when they do see us they’re surprised at who we are,” she said of her patients. The family aims for something not always associated with medical marijuana: professionalism.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/a-family-of-doctors-helps-reinvent-medical-marijuana/2018/01/14/f4ea320e-eb24-11e7-b698-91d4e35920a3_story.html?utm_term=.8046c338e4f7
A family of doctors helps reinvent medical marijuana
By Justin Wm. Moyer
 |
| From left, physicians David Knox, Rachel Knox, Janice Knox and Jessica Knox are the founders of the American Cannabinoid Clinics. (Amanda Lucier/for The Washington Post) |
The Knoxes are a clan of four doctors living in Oregon and California who specialize in medical marijuana. They seem to be doing quite well selling something that is illegal in many states, working with those they know best.
“We’re all fighting the same fight,” said Janice Knox, the founding doctor behind American Cannabinoid Clinics in Portland, Ore. — and the mother of two fellow physicians and the wife of the other. “I think when they do see us they’re surprised at who we are,” she said of her patients. The family aims for something not always associated with medical marijuana: professionalism.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/a-family-of-doctors-helps-reinvent-medical-marijuana/2018/01/14/f4ea320e-eb24-11e7-b698-91d4e35920a3_story.html?utm_term=.8046c338e4f7
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