Month: September 2019

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Doctors Attributed a Death to Vaping for the First Time

After many mysterious respiratory illnesses that seem to be linked to vaping, health officials in Illinois are ready to say the e-cigarettes are the cause of death in at least one case.

The Department of Public Health Director Ngozi Ezike issued a statement:

“The severity of illness people are experiencing is alarming and we must get the word out that using e-cigarettes and vaping can be dangerous. We requested a team from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to help us investigate these cases and they arrived in Illinois on Tuesday.”

Earlier this month, the CDC began an investigation into several reports of the unidentified lung disease that has affected almost 100 people across a dozen U.S. states. No information about the victim in this case has been provided, except that they were an adult person living in Illinois.

The reported number of people suffering from respiratory issues related to vaping has doubled in just a week, and now 22 people between the ages of 17 and 38 have been hospitalized due to the condition. People who have shown symptoms of the illness only share one commonality: vaping. People have grown sick after vaping THC products, nicotine products, and a combination of the two.

The CDC, along with state health officials and the USDA, are looking into the names, brands, types of products and kinds of devices the patients used in order to try to pin down a more specific culprit, but right now the risky behavior seems to be vaping at all.

While the CDC admits that e-cigs can be helpful to those who hope to quit smoking, the potential risks outweigh the possible benefits for many others – and they advise that teens, young adults, and pregnant women avoid them at all costs.

Right now, the cause behind the illnesses remains a mystery, and health officials urge anyone who vapes and experiences chest pains or has difficulty breathing to seek medical attention right away.

If you haven’t started vaping, this information should be more than enough reason to steer clear…and if you have, it might be time to quit.

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A French Man Attempted a DIY Project and Got His Head Stuck in a Ladder for 5 Days

Home improvement shows on television may make projects look simple (or at least doable) around the house, and it’s no wonder that more and more unqualified people have it in their heads they can tackle things around the house without professional help. Stores like Lowes and Home Depot perpetuate the myth, more than happy to sell you everything you need except an actual skillset.

This guy, though, learned the hard way that everything is not meant to be a do-it-yourself.

Or at least, it shouldn’t be.

The unnamed man from eastern France spent five whole days with his head wedged between two ladder rungs after he fell while working in his bathroom. His head swelled up so quickly he was unable to pull it out, reports the BBC.

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Raaaaash #stuckinaladder

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Given his encumbrance, he was unable to reach either his phone or the sink tap, meaning that when his sister finally found him and alerted medics to his distress, he was badly dehydrated, in addition to suffering from reduced blood flow to his head.

The hospital checked him over and released him, though he is still being monitored for complications.

My Dad got his head stuck in the porch yesterday whilst trying to feed a dead bee to a spider that lives in the bushes… from funny

The good (?) news is, he’s far from the first person (or animal) to find their head trapped in a ladder.

Let that be a warning to all of you DIYers out there – you just never know what the worst case scenario is going to be until it happens to you.

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Aside from the Ink, Getting a Tattoo Can Permanently Change Your Body

Tattoos are obviously permanet…but what if that alteration is more than skin deep?

A new study published in the Particle and Fibre Toxicology Journal, alleges that some people with multiple tattoos end up with a microscopic sprinkling of metal in their lymph nodes.

Scientists have known about the metal particles for some time, but have assumed it was a byproduct of the ink filtered out by lymph nodes in the neck, armpit, and groin. This study, though, points to a different culprit.

Now, researchers have discovered that traces of nickel and chromium found in these lymph nodes actually come from the needle of the tattoo gun. Hiram Castillo, one of the study’s authors, explains what they found: “There is more to tattoos than meets the eye. It is not only about the cleanliness of the parlour, the sterilization of the equipment or even about the pigments. Now we find that the needle wear also has an impact in your body.”

The team of researchers, out of the Federal Institute for Risk Assessment in Germany, began by studying tissue from deceased people with and without tattoos and found particles of iron, chromium, and nickel in the lymph nodes of those sporting ink. Those aren’t common metals found in inks, explains Ines Schreiver, another scientist connected with the study.

“We tested around 50 ink samples without finding such metal particles and made sure that we hadn’t contaminated the samples during sample preparation. Then we though of testing the needle and that was our ‘eureka’ moment.”

The real culprit is probably a white pigment contained in green, blue, and red tattoo inks. It’s called titanium dioxide, and it can wear away needles.

The discovery could help explain why some people experience allergic reactions to tattoos – and lest you think that the nanoparticles are no big deal, I’m sorry to tell you that smaller sized particles can often release higher amounts of toxic elements.

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Artista @derbylablonge

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That said, there is no evidence to suggest that tattoos are associated with wider health problems…for now. Researchers are, Schreiver says, going to keep digging.

“Unfortunately, today, we can’t determine the exact impact on human health and possible allergy development deriving from the tattoo needle wear. These are long-term effects which can only be assessed in long-term epidemiological studies that monitor the health of thousands of people over decades.”

Just one more thing to think about before you choose the shop – and the color – of your next amazing piece of body art.

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A Huge Game of Hide-And-Seek at IKEA Got Stopped by the Police

This is a headline you don’t see every day, now is it? But it’s true – every word of it!

Police were recently called to an IKEA store in Glasgow, Scotland, after store employees became alarmed when customers began hiding in cupboards, refrigerators, and beds.

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Posted by IKEA on Friday, August 30, 2019

The culprit? A “Hide and Seek” Facebook event that over 2,000 people signed up for and another 10,000 folks were “interested in.” Damn you, social media!

The store’s management had heard about the planned event and were turning people away at the front door, but they couldn’t catch every mischievous person who wanted to get in on the action.

Not sure if you have seen the hide and seek thing going on in Ikea but, my friend just dropped me off at the airport to…

Posted by Paige Taft on Wednesday, September 4, 2019

Five police officers were dispatched to the IKEA store to help staff put an end to the game. Rob Cooper, the manager of the Glasgow store, said:

“The safety of our customers and co-workers is always our highest priority. We were aware of an unofficial hide and seek Facebook event being organised to take place at our store and have been working with the local police for support. While we appreciate playing games in one of our stores may be appealing to some, we do not allow this kind of activity to take place to ensure we are offering a safe environment and relaxed shopping experience for our customers.”

Sounds like this game got squashed almost before it even started. Buzzkill!

There’s actually been a somewhat global trend of people wanting to play Hide and Seek at IKEA stores going all the way back to 2014. Games have taken place in Belgium, the Czech Republic, and the Netherlands. One organizer for a game in Belgium said, “Sometimes it’s fun just to do some childish things. Ikea is like an extremely large living room. We played hide and seek the whole day. It was really exhausting but so much fun.”

IKEA, however, is not on board. The store issued a statement telling customers, “It’s hard to control. We need to make sure people are safe in our stores and that’s hard to do if we don’t even know where they are.”

Good point. Safety first, people…keep that in mind.

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A School in Tennessee Banned ‘Harry Potter’ Books. In 2019.

What year are we living in? Oh, that’s right, it’s 2019…and apparently, some things never change.

A Catholic school in Nashville, Tennessee, has removed J.W. Rowling’s world-famous Harry Potter books from its shelves because the school’s pastor said, “These books present magic as both good and evil, which is not true, but in fact a clever deception. The curses and spells used in the books are actual curses and spells; which when read by a human being risk conjuring evil spirits into the presence of the person reading the text.”

St. Edward Catholic School pastor Father Dan Reehil wrote an email to parents at the school explaining the decision. Reehil said in the message that he consulted with several exorcists in the U.S. and in Italy before making his decision. That seems like time well spent, doesn’t it?

Rebecca Hammel, the superintendent of schools for the Catholic Diocese of Nashville, said, “Each pastor has canonical authority to make such decisions for his parish school. He’s well within his authority to act in that manner.”

This is not the first time that the Harry Potter series has been under scrutiny from schools. From 2001 until 2003, the series was on the American Library Association’s list of “most challenged books.”

Father Reehil started exploring the possibility of banning the Harry Potter books after he received an inquiry from a parent. I bet that kid thinks his parents are a BLAST.

It’s hard to believe that this kind of thing still happens in 2019, but here we are…

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Steve Jobs Made Some Accurate Predictions About the Future of Technology in the 1980s and ’90s

Steve Jobs was truly a one-of-kind businessman. The co-founder of Apple was a visionary who helped change the way we work, play, and live. And Jobs made some predictions in the 1980s and 1990s that may have seemed far-fetched at the time, but it turns out he absolutely nailed it.

Here are some examples of the foresight that Jobs had years before these things became a reality.

Tablets

Photo Credit: Pixabay

The iPad wasn’t launched by Apple until 2010, but all the way back in 1983 at the International Design Conference in Aspen, Jobs talked about “an incredibly great computer in a book that you can carry around with you that you that you can learn in five minutes.”

Virtual Assistants

Photo Credit: Pexels

Before Siri and Alexa became household items, Jobs said this…in 1984: “The next stage is going to be computers as ‘agents. In other words, it will be as if there’s a little person inside that box who starts to anticipate what you want. Rather than help you, it will start to guide you through large amounts of information. It will almost be like you have a little friend inside that box.”

Sound familiar?

iPhones

Photo Credit: Pexels

Those “agents” Jobs talked about? Jobs said they would evolve. “I’ve always thought it would be really wonderful to have a little box, a sort of slate that you could carry along with you.”

Sounds like an iPhone to me.

Young people and devices

Photo Credit: pxhere

Jobs really nailed this prediction. In 1984, he said, “You’d get one of these things maybe when you were 10 years old, and somehow you’d turn it on and it would say, you know, ‘Where am I?’ And you’d somehow tell it you were in California and it would say, ‘Oh, who are you?’”

The online marketplace

Photo Credit: Flickr,Elaine Smith

In 1995, Steve Jobs predicted that the newly-flourishing Internet would allow startup companies to compete with established companies because they’d be able to sell directly to consumers. He said, “it’s very exciting because it is going to destroy vast layers of our economy and make available a presence in the marketplace for very small companies, one that is equal to very large companies.”

Sadly, Jobs passed away in 2011 at the age of 56 from pancreatic cancer, but he sure did accomplish a lot while he was alive.

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15 People Share the Ways They Would Absolutely Not Want to Die

This is an uncomfortable question to consider, but that’s what AskReddit is about sometimes, right?

What is a way you would absolutely NOT want to die?

AskReddit users shared their opinions on this unsettling question.

Share your thoughts in the comments below!

1. That’s not good

“I remember reading about this guy that fell into a pit of concrete powder, and he inhaled some of it. It set in his lungs, causing him to very slowly and painfully suffocate.”

2. Burning up

“Lava. it’s a lot worse than movies make it look.”

3. Uggghhhh

“Being put in a big metal container naked then having the container get heated by a fire. It would be way worse than just being caught on fire.”

4. In the mud

“Drown in the mud like soldiers during WWI.”

5. No!

“Glow Worms. The way they kill their prey is one of the most painful ways to die in the animal kingdom. They use the silk stands to attract prey, paralyse them, drill a hole in the side of their head and fill their insides with stomach acid, then leave them – for 2 weeks to digest.”

6. Nightmare

“Getting buried alive.”

7. Quite an imagination

“Surviving a High-speed Car crash only to come out of surgery, live in massive pain for two days and then your heart gives out from all the excruciating pain.

Or surviving a fire but over half your body is covered in 3rd Degree wounds, only to die weeks before being cleared to leave and having to spend all those years in the burn unit only to never see the outside world again.”

8. This is real and scary

“Brain eating amoeba.”

9. Yikes

“Being skinned.

I mean it like being flayed while fully conscious.”

10. Not ideal

“John Jones, who got stuck upside down in a super tight cave passage in Utah and rescuers couldn’t get him out… so they had to just let him die and then sealed the cave up.

Yeah. Not my ideal bucket kicking.”

11. Sounds like a horror movie

“Cheese grater.”

12. Enclosed

“My biggest fear is being crushed to death, or being stuck in such a way that I can’t move. I don’t have severe claustrophobia, I’ll climb in a small enclosed space if it’s safe no problem, I used to do it all the time when I was a welder. But seeing pictures like this just give me high blood pressure.”

13. Scary

“Driving off a bridge into deep water. Its never happened to me, but for some reason the sound of a windshield cracking upon impact with water and the feeling of a seatbelt digging into my neck and hips pop up in my nightmares a lot. I have a hard time crossing bridges in vehicles, thanks to that.”

14. Not pleasant

“That one torture method where they leave a rat on top of your stomach trapped and starve the rat so it digs through your stomach. Crucifixion sounds pretty bad too or being burned in gasoline .”

15. That’s depressing

“Dying alone and slowly from old age, after everyone I know is dead.”

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Traveling Through the Canadian Rockies in a Glass-Domed Train Looks Amazing

An extensive, leisurely train trip through Canada is on my bucket list, and it seems like this might be the best way to see at least part of that beautiful country.

Rocky Mountaineer’s Goldleaf Service looks like a fantastic and luxurious way to see the Canadian Rocky Mountains in style. Riders who use this service enjoy breathtaking mountain views from the comfort of a glass-domed train. Along with the amazing scenery, riders are served gourmet meals and wine and cheese (and complimentary alcoholic drinks and snacks).

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POST OF THE WEEK: “Just another day in the canyon”. Thank you, @Mattyrobphotography, for sharing this shot of our train passing over the Thompson River. Would you like your post to be featured? All you need to do is tag it with #RockyMountaineer. We’ll select our favourite photo from the week’s entries and share your best moment with the world!⁠⠀ .⁠⠀ .⁠⠀ .⁠⠀ #canadianrockies #canadavacations #imagesofcanada #tourcanada #travelcanada #railways_of_our_world #trains_worldwide #train_nerds #traintravel #railfans_of_instagram #trainphotography #railwayphotography #trainstagram #railmarkable #trainsofcanada #travelawesome #vacationideas #luxurytraveller #enjoycanada #tourcanada #amazingview

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There’s also a viewing platform so riders can step outside to enjoy the fresh air and the incredible views that only the Canadian Rockies can supply. The Goldleaf trains offer a number of different routes that riders can book. There are many great stops along the way, including Vancouver, Banff, Seattle, and Lake Louise.

The package tours also offer hotel accommodations at various points along the Goldleaf routes. The company offered four new rail cars in 2019 and will introduce three additional cars in 2020. President and CEO Steve Sammut said, “These new GoldLeaf rail cars will allow us to welcome even more guests on board our trains and offer increased availability across our most popular dates and routes.”

The new train cars have dimmable domed windows to cut down on the intensity of incoming sunlight and reclining, heated seats.

Two million people have traveled on Rocky Mountaineer trains to see the Canadian Rockies since the company started in 1990.

This looks like a great time. Book it!

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Starbucks’ Best Size Coffee Isn’t on the Menu — You Can Still Order a ‘Short’

It’s well-known that Starbucks has a secret menu, but you might not realize that also includes a secret cup size.

Fun fact: AMC theaters DOES have a normal-sized soda cup they also don’t advertise – it’s called a “cameo” size.

But, back to Starbucks.

On the menu, Starbucks offers 3 cup sizes – a tall (12 ounces), a grande (16 ounces), and a venti (20 ounces). You may be aware that a trenta (31 ounces holy crow) is also an option, but did you know you can also get a smaller than a tall?

You can!

The short is an 8 ounce cuppa, which is more akin to the size of coffee you probably brew at home into a ceramic mug.

It used to be on the menu – the sizes were short, tall, and grade – but eventually, the venti became a thing instead.

Maybe because people are really tired I guess and 8 ounces doesn’t seem like enough coffee? Just a guess.

But here’s the thing: it can (and does) often make for better coffee.

Take the cappuccino, for instance, which should have a thick head of foamed milk over the espresso. When you order a tall (or larger), the foam breaks down, which mixes a more-than-optimal amount of milk into the coffee. And the short doesn’t have any less caffeine than a tall, either, just less milk.

Gawker’s (RIP) Tom Scocca made an argument for the 8 ounce cup of coffee several years ago, even in drip format.

“When you drink a coffee larger than a small coffee, the coffee gets cold before you can finish it. You begin with a steaming, uplifting sip, and by gradual stages you end up sucking down cold, aroma-less dregs. Everyone knows this. Even people who disdain small coffee will confess that their larger beverages end in misery.”

So, the next time you’re headed out for coffee, consider the short – it will be hot and made the way it’s supposed to be made. Win, win!

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This Is How Much Red Meat, Eggs, and Dairy You Should Eat to Be Healthy

There are a ton of arguments about the dangers of eating too much meat these days – health, the environment, animal cruelty – and no shortage of people ready to shout at you why you should be reducing your consumption.

But if you’re less concerned about macro issues and more worried about how much you consume for reasons to do with your own personal body, you might be wondering what science and health experts recommend.

Which, in that case, I’ve got you covered.

Or at least, the Heart Foundation of Australia does.

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Thin patties cooked medium rare?? I need to check this out for myself. . Repost • @mybizzykitchen Dear @atwoodchi – I work just blocks from your location and am kicking myself for not trying you sooner ??‍♀️ Located in the heart of the loop near the theater district, it’s a perfect location on State Street. Being the burger snob that I am, I had to try the “Atwood Burger.” @slagelfamilyfarm beef, American cheese, special sauce, pickles and romaine I love a medium rare, rare burger and the fact that they nailed mid rare on two thin patties is amazeballs. The beef was flavorful, juicy, and the bun to burger ratio was perfect ?? @joshuanmeyer – let me know the next time you are in the city – you’d love this burger! @ww peeps might be thinking ? “Biz, that’s so many points!” But I ate half my plate, counted it as 17 points, loved every bite and I’m moving on. That’s the best part about @ww is that you never have to give up the foods you love – you can always make it work. I am now adding this burger into my Top 5 that I’ve tried in Chicago! My sister @jenncooks got the Nashville hot chicken sandwich and it was delicious too ✅ Raise your hand ? if you want a bite ??

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They’ve published updated recommendations for red meat, eggs, and dairy, and, honestly, people have been caught a bit off guard by what they say.

For red meat, it’s recommended that we eat a maximum of 350g per week – that’s just two servings of beef, lamb, pork, or veal every seven days.

The average burger patty is around 200g, and a small steak is around 100g (a dinner steak would be more like 150-200g).

Australians, like Americans, eat a lot of red meat – an average of around 250g a DAY, which works out to 1750g every week.

Clearly, that is far above the recommended levels.

Health officials would like to see people substitute Omega-3 rich fish, lentils, beans, chickpeas, and kidney beans for at least some portions of their usual red meat intake.

Moving on…

Eggs are considered great sources of both proteins and vitamins and minerals, but they should be enjoyed in moderation due to high levels of cholesterol (though you can safely have 1 or 2 a day, unless you have risk factors like high cholesterol, heart disease, or diabetes).

And the HFA actually recommends that people look into including more full fat dairy into their diets (whole milk, full fat greek yogurt) because it increases blood glucose and make you feel fuller throughout the day, which can actually help reduce total calorie intake (except, again for people with heart issues and high cholesterol). They also say it’s not a bad idea to consider adding some non-milk ‘dairy’ into your diet, like almond milk or cashew cheese.

Basically, we all need to take a hard look at increasing our fruit and vegetable intake. The two food groups contain loads of fiber, vitamins, and minerals that can help reduce our risk of heart disease and diabetes, unlike processed foods rich in sugar, fat, and salt, which contribute heavily to weight gain and poor cardiovascular health.

To sum up: you can enjoy your burger or steak, but just say yes to a big side of broccoli, too.

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