Tag Archive for research

Love that Face Mask

Cloth face masks are so much nicer than the manufactured type. We enjoy expressing ourselves with words on them, making half our face into an animal or clown, adding a big smile, showing our patriotism–anything to lift our spirits. We must remember, though, that those masks must be washed, both before the first use and every day after that. Many can go into the washing machine; all can be hand-washed.

HOW to wash them is equally important. Here’s a site that reveals what research has shown to be the best wash/dry method. It gives some very helpful tips to ensure that your reusable mask continues to keep you and others healthy. Go to https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/reviews/how-to-wash-a-face-mask

Where Humans Come From

This just said it so beautifully, I couldn’t pass it up for today’s Thursday Thought.

Worth-less Women

Remember all those reports about women making 70 – 80 cents less per hour than men doing the same job? Those were short-term reports. The gap is even larger, according to a 15-year study by the Institute for Women’s Policy Research. They say it’s actually 49 cents for every dollar a man makes in the same job.

Yes, there are laws that are supposed to secure pay equity. But they’re being ignored or circumvented by such devices as hiring two people to do the same job yet giving the man one title and the woman another title.

That gap really affects families and children, because half of the people in the workforce are women. If you’re a single mom, that hurts. If you’re a two-salary family out of necessity, that hurts. If you’re a child in either situation, that hurts.

This, then, is more than an economic or fairness issue–although it’s decidedly both.  It’s also a human issue, one that puts women and children, and even men, on the edge of financial disaster and out on the streets.

Are Household Cleaners Making Your Kids Fat?

Come on, you’re kidding, right? Not according to Canadian researchers who studied the effects of household cleaners on children as young as 3-4 months. Granted, other scientists think the study is flawed. However, it’s something for parents to think about and maybe not take a chance with their little ones’ health.

Read the article Are Household Cleaners Making Your Kids Fat? and decide for yourself.

[Thanks to Tina Blease for this article.]

Your Music = Your Personality

I ran across an interesting study indicating that the music you listen to reflects your personality. Adrian North, a UK professor, carried out his research with 360,000 people in 60+ countries and looked at a large variety of music styles. Here are his conclusions:

Blues fans have high self-esteem, are creative, outgoing, gentle and at ease
Jazz fans have high self-esteem, are creative, outgoing and at ease
Classical music fans have high self-esteem, are creative, introvert and at ease
Rap fans have high self-esteem and are outgoing
Opera fans have high self-esteem, are creative and gentle
Country and western fans are hardworking and outgoing
Reggae fans have high self-esteem, are creative, not hardworking, outgoing, gentle and at ease
Dance fans are creative and outgoing but not gentle
Indie fans have low self-esteem, are creative, not hard working, and not gentle
Bollywood fans are creative and outgoing
Rock/heavy metal fans have low self-esteem, are creative, not hard-working, not outgoing, gentle, and at ease
Chart pop fans have high self-esteem, are hardworking, outgoing and gentle, but are not creative and not at ease
Soul fans have high self-esteem, are creative, outgoing, gentle, and at ease

 

I just thought this was an interesting tidbit to pass on to you. For more details, read Preferred Music Style Is Tied to Personality. Before clicking on that link, though, be sure to put on those headphones and rev up your tunes.

 

 

Interesting Fact re: Abuse, Children, and Mothers

According to  Steven Stosny, PhD (founder of CompassionPower), research has revealed an interesting fact: Children who grow up watching their mothers being abused are not only damaged but even more damaged than if they’re abused themselves.

Seems like common sense.  But maybe scientific proof will sink into the minds of abusers who love their children.  And prompt more people who observe such abuse to report it for the sake of the child.

 

 

CA, Immigration, Violent Crime, and People who will Save Us

I don’t like outsiders coming into California and telling me what’s wrong with my state, especially when they haven’t done their homework.  I’m galled by Donald Trump’s telling us how bad the violent crime is in California and attributing it to our immigrants.

According to the CATO Institute’s Immigration and Crime–What the Research Says, “Between years 2000 and 2005, California cities with large inflows of recent immigrants tended have lower violent crimes rates [emphasis mine] and the findings are statistically significant.  During the same time period, there is no statistically significant relationship between immigration and property crime.”

The American Immigration Council  says this in The Criminalization of Immigration in the United States: “For more than a century, innumerable studies have confirmed two simple yet powerful truths about the relationship between immigration and crime: immigrants are less likely to commit serious crimes or be behind bars than the native-born, and high rates of immigration are associated with lower rates of violent crime and property crime [emphasis mine]. This holds true for both legal immigrants and the unauthorized, regardless of their country of origin or level of education.”

CNN reported in Immigrants and Crime–Crunching the Numbers that “numerous studies going back more than a century have shown that immigrants—regardless of nationality or legal status—are less likely than the native population to commit violent crimes or to be incarcerated. A new report from the Immigration Policy Center notes that while the illegal immigrant population in the U.S. more than tripled between 1990 and 2013 to more than 11.2 million, ‘FBI data indicate that the violent crime rate declined 48%—which included falling rates of aggravated assault, robbery, rape, and murder. Likewise, the property crime rate fell 41%, including declining rates of motor vehicle theft, larceny/robbery, and burglary.’”

A GAO (U.S. Government Accountability Office) report shows an increase in immigrants arrested, but for immigration violations, traffic violations, and drugs, not for violent crimes.  “Based on our random sample, GAO estimates that the criminal aliens had an average of 7 arrests, 65 percent were arrested at least once for an immigration offense, and about 50 percent were arrested at least once for a drug offense. Immigration, drugs, and traffic violations accounted for about 50 percent of arrest offenses. About 90 percent of the criminal aliens sentenced in federal court in fiscal year 2009 (the most recently available data) were convicted of immigration and drug-related offenses.”

I did my own bit of homework, all by myself.  Trump and others like him have teams of people to do it for them.  But they don’t care about the truth; they care only about sound-bites and riling us up against each other so they can jump in and say, “Trust me. I’ll save you.”

Go away and leave California alone.  We don’t need your type of “saving”!

 

 

Be Cozy and Warm and Safe

Baby, it’s cold outside.  Yes, it’s starting to be cozy-up weather, a time when thoughts turn to….space heaters.  They’re convenient and effective, and you don’t have to warm up rooms you aren’t spending time in.

BUT, be safe.  A third of all house fires are cause by space heaters that overheat, melt, tip over, or are used improperly.  You’ve probably had that one stashed in the closet for years.  Time to replace it.  Newer ones have better safety features, like anti-tips, automatic turn-off at overheating, and protections against fabric that leans against it, catching fire.  Look on the box for the features of various brands.  (You can also see what Consumer Reports, Comparaboo, or another research company has to say about those brands.)  Buy the one that does the best job and, above all, is safest.

When you get it home, remember to plug it into it’s own dedicated socket (no rats nests of plugs piggy-backed into that poor socket) and keep it three feet away from flammable items.

One more thing–if you have friends or relatives (especially older or disabled ones), pass on this info to them.  Maybe even buy them a new heater for Christmas.

Once again, dear readers, please keep safe.  I need you!

Another Black Mark Against California

Yesterday I wrote about a free ride for CA legislators. Today I’m again unhappy with my normally beloved state.

We’ve put in a lot of time, energy, and money to solve a problem: executions.  We haven’t had any for 9 years, and 170 people currently sit on Death Row, 17 of whom have no appeals left to them.

After hassling with the Supreme Court for some time, our corrections department has come up with a new form of execution.  Will it succeed where the electric chair, gas chamber, and 3-drug injections failed?  And will “success” be measured in a population of 0 on Death Row?

I can’t help wondering if all the time, effort, research, and money put into devising this new killing system were put into repairing our biased, unequally applied, wealth-driven, often wrong legal system, if maybe we’d reach 0 population on Death Row naturally, through death-by-old-age or morally, by equal application of capital punishment and release of people who, thanks to that equal application and advances in science, should never have been there in the first place.

 

 

Breakthrough on Alzheimer’s Disease

Wonderful news!  A study by Duke University may have found a new cause of Alzheimer’s Disease: problems with the immune system.  The study suggests that cells in the immune system gobble up an important nutrient, arginine, while trying to protect the brain.  Researchers were able to block this process in mice.

Read more about this study and note at the bottom this statement: This research was supported by the National Institutes of Health (AG031124, AG031845, T32-GM007171), the Alzheimer’s Association (IIRG-07-59802), and the Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation.  In other words, a whole bunch of experts in the field believe that Duke researchers are onto something.  To any of us who have a friend or loved one with Alzheimer’s Disease, this means new hope.