- Overture Magazine -
​The troubling collapse of bee populations worldwide gets more worrisome with every spring. According to BBC News, “Scientists have long suspected that insects are in dramatic decline, but new evidence confirms this. Research at more than 60 protected areas in Germany suggests flying insects have declined by more than 75 percent over almost 30 years.”
Matilde Boelhouwer, a graduate of the Netherlands' Artez Institute of the Arts, decided to do something about it. According to Boelhouwer’s site, designers are “obliged to think about new possibilities and opportunities and show new perspectives instead of only making more beautiful products.”
That obligation drove her to use her design skills in a positive, impactful way. Boelhouwer learned that jeopardized insects often faced a lack of food accompanied by exhaustion. She realized that if she could produce some type of artificial flower that would attract not only bees, but also the other important pollinators of the insect world (hoverflies, butterflies, and moths), these flowers could become a source of nourishment and respite for the insects.
Boelhouwer tapped her artistic talents and worked with entomologists to determine which design elements and other attractants would entice insects to feed at these auxiliary stations. This collaboration of art and science, according to an article in Fast Company, resulted in the production of artificial flowers that can be used repeatedly in urban areas.
Boelhouwer continues her mission from her studio, where she hopes to make people understand the importance of nature while also raising awareness of new ideas and solutions. Her recent creations include insect terraria and sweets made from insects.

~Overture Magazine, Issue 3

 - Curiosity - If you've taken a shot of hard liquor, you know how badly it burns on the way down. But how can a room-temperature or even a cool liquid cause this burning sensation? The answer isn't what you might think.

If You Can't Stand the Heat

Your body's normal temperature hovers at, or very close to, 98.6 degrees (37 degrees Celsius). When you drink something cold, that beverage becomes slightly warmer as it travels down your throat and into your stomach. When you drink a hot beverage, the opposite happens: Your body absorbs some of that heat.

And your body can take a lot of heat. For example, coffee drinkers prefer their cup of joe around 140 degrees Fahrenheit (60 degrees Celsius), according to a study published in the Journal of Food Science. So even when you sip on something nearly 30 degrees hotter than your core body temperature, you don't feel like your throat is on fire.

To protect your insides, your mouth and throat both have pain sensors called vanilloid receptor-1, or VR1. VR1 are finely tuned to react to food's temperature and acidity by stimulating neurons to transmit the sensation of pain to the brain. These receptors are super sensitive to both actual high temperatures and perceived heat from compounds like capsaicin, making them react similarly to a sizzling hot slice of pizza as they do to a habanero-laden scoop of salsa.

Fool Me Once

Things change when alcohol comes into play. Ethanol is the type of alcohol found in alcoholic beverages such as tequila. Unlike capsaicin, which makes VR1 think a food is hot to the touch, ethanol binds to these receptors and makes them more sensitive to heat. This bond actually changes the heat threshold, lowering it to just 93.2 degrees Fahrenheit (34 degrees Celsius). This might not seem like a big swing in temperature, but it's enough to cause a flurry of responses in your skin, esophagus, and spinal cord, giving you a sudden sensation of warmth all over and a nasty burn in your throat.

The human body has warning signals in place to protect you from danger. Whether it's a sudden release of adrenaline in life-threatening situations or a pain signal when you eat something that's too hot, reactions in your body are there to tell you not to do something. In the case of downing a shot of liquor, that burning sensation isn't real heat; it's your own body's warning signals gone awry.

Live on Curiosity.com

- Go To Medellin - When looking to travel or live in another country, considerations for a senior's destination include the safety of an area, healthcare availability, easy access to transportation, and an abundance of entertainment.

Recently, Medellin, Colombia has been a location frequently recommended to seniors and others looking for someplace different. But, with its shaky past as a high-crime drug capital, one has to ask why.

As it turns out, the past 20 years have brought about a remarkable change for Medellin and the surrounding area. Great efforts have been made to transform the area, shed the bad reputation, and stimulate growth of all types. These changes have led to an upsurge of business development plus improvements in infrastructure, technology, healthcare, social amenities and more.

Of particular interest to foreigners is El Poblado, an upscale neighborhood located at the eastern side of the Aburra Valley and in close proximity to El Centro, Medellin’s city center. This area is best described as being more developed than others, making it more appealing to boomers while staying in the region. According to Medellin Living, “It is essentially a wealthy suburb that offers Medellin’s elite a western lifestyle with all the creature comforts money can buy.”

Safety measures have been stepped up in El Poblado. The neighborhood has an increased police presence, allowing visitors and residents added comfort and security when going about their activities, both day and night.

There are several medical clinics located right in El Poblado providing services from general medical care right on up to plastic surgery and, according to International Living and the World Health Organization (WHO), Hospital Pablo Tobón Uribe in nearby Medellin is higher ranked than comparable facilities in the United States and Canada.

Getting around Medellin and El Poblado is easy for seniors with transportation options that include access to taxis, bus service, the metro, and even Uber.

As the most well-to-do neighborhood of Medellin, El Poblado’s tree-lined streets are dotted with modern high-rise buildings offering mostly luxury apartments. High-end shopping can be found in several malls and many small boutiques. Restaurants and bars are plentiful and the nearby Zona Rosa features several nightclubs with a hip and vibrant nighttime scene.

For seniors interested in adventurous activities in and around the area there is much to consider. There are numerous parks with hiking paths, streams, and even ocean views to entice those who want to explore nature. Laguna de Guatape, provided by Tours Guatape, is a day trip takes participants up 650 steep steps up a rock to provide spectacular views of the coast and its surrounds.

Not to be missed is the chance to see an Atlético Nacional football (soccer to Americans) game – considered an electrifying experience even for those who don’t like the sport of soccer.
Other more adventurous activities in the area include horseback riding, parasailing, a cable car excursion, ziplining – the list goes on and on.
​
The El Poblado and the city of Medellin have each made a strong comeback and travel to the area should be high on anyone’s bucket list of places that provide a safe, comfortable travel experience with an abundance of things to do for all involved.

Original article on GoToMedellin.com

- The Recovery Village - Whether you are watching television, browsing the internet, or reading a magazine, images of very thin people are very common. The result is a consistent messaging that the ideal body, particularly for women, is a very thin one that is often, in fact, unhealthy. Additionally, there are thousands of diet plans, workout videos, gym memberships and exercise equipment seem to be everywhere.

There has been a surge of sites over the past 10 years that are geared towards promoting a very thin body. They are called “thinspo” sites.

These sites have been created to support a movement that is known by a few names: “thinspiration” (or “thinspo” for short), pro-ana (pro-anorexia), and pro-mia (pro-bulimia). This movement supports and encourages people to get ultra-thin, in most cases below what would be considered as a healthy weight. While the assumption might be that these sites are only for women, this is not the case. The desire for a super thin body has crept its way into the male population as well and there are many “thinspo” sites directed specifically at men. In 2010, the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health conducted a study involving 180 active pro-eating disorder websites, of which 98 percent were administered by women. Two years later, an article in GQ that was reporting on the rise in anorexia among men noted that ten years ago clinicians estimated that men made up around 5 percent of the anorexic population, while today it’s between 20 and 30 percent. Regardless of gender, the target audience of these pro-anorexia sites tends to be young adults.

Pro-Anorexia Websites

Pro-anorexia websites feature photos of ultra-thin individuals and have captions with accompanying stories that, according to medical professionals, encourage and support the eating disorder. In addition, the use of social media outlets (Facebook, Instagram, Tumblr, Pinterest, Twitter, etc.) and personal blogs have been cited as primary sources that assist teens in their goals of extreme weight loss and further complicate their eating disorders. As a means of offering support to each other, selfies are posted that show vast weight reduction, visible and protruding bone structure (collarbone, spine, ribs, leg bones, jaw bones), and tips on hiding purging methods, hunger suppression tactics, and even ways to prevent vomit from eroding teeth.

The Issue with Pro-Anorexia Sites

Treatment professionals are concerned that the population of young adults who partake in thinspiration feels that this is a lifestyle choice. In this way, anorexia or bulimia is their chosen method to attain the body they want – thereby giving them the lifestyle they choose. With names like “MyProAna,” “ProAna Tips and Tricks,” and “Male Thinspo – A Guide to Perfection,” these sites are a draw for individuals who suffer from eating disorders. Strangely, the site owners typically have some sort of disclaimer/warning statement on the front page that supports the idea that this way of living is a choice. One site called, for example, states the following message:  “This site does not encourage that you develop an eating disorder. This is a site for those who ALREADY have an eating disorder and do not wish to go into recovery. If you do not already have an eating disorder, better it is that you do not develop one now. You may wish to leave.” Another similar statement is: “Heavy dietary changes and exercise can be a deadly hazard to your life. Nothing is more precious than your life. Please make sustainable changes only. It won’t happen in a day. It will take its time. Consistency and perseverance will get you there.” Professionals are concerned that pro-anorexia sites provide people struggling with an eating disorder with the methods to achieve their goals and perpetuate this body image ideal through an enabling “support” system that is hidden away from family and friends.

Original blog post: TheRecoveryVillage.com

 - Yahoo Health - Most times doctors tell you that a well-balanced diet is the key to staying healthy. Although this is good advice for most people, individuals with bipolar disorder (or manic-depression) need to be careful.

WebMD states that “there isn’t a miracle diet for bipolar disorder.”  In general, they recommend avoiding fad diets and sticking to the basics, like eating lots of fruits, vegetables, and grains and sticking to fewer foods loaded with fats and sugar.

This concept is all well and good, but there is a more valuable point that you need to know, and few sources out there discuss this.

Nobel Prize winner Linus Pauling, who spent his life studying and working in the sciences, founded the new field of Orthomolecular Psychiatry in 1968. Pauling proposed that “mental abnormalities might be successfully treated by correcting imbalances or deficiencies among naturally occurring biochemical constituents of the brain, notably vitamins and other micronutrients, as an alternative to the administration of potent synthetic psychoactive drugs.”

In laymen’s terms, this means that there are certain foods that can greatly affect your moods if you are swinging on either end of the pendulum of bipolar disorder.

For example, when someone feels emotionally balanced, potatoes are okay to eat. They are also okay to eat when that same person swings to the lows of depression. However they should be avoided if that person is having a bout with the manic side of bipolar. Milk and other dairy products are okay when balanced, but they should be avoided when on a manic high, and yet they can help when on a depressed low. Fish, (tuna in particular), pork, carrots, spinach, oranges, brown rice and many other foods are okay no matter what level a person is at.

What a person with bipolar needs to be careful of is when a particular food is a key ingredient of another food product. For example, tomatoes are okay for when they feel balanced and or the depressed end of bipolar, but they need to be avoided when swinging to the manic side – so no tomato-based products like ketchup or tomato sauce on pizza.

Why Does Eating or Avoiding Certain Foods Matter?

Everyone’s brain has three neurotransmitter chemicals that are affected by food; dopamine, norepinephrine, and serotonin.  Neurotransmitters relay signals between neurons and other brain cells. In a well-functioning brain, the proportion of these chemicals works properly, however, in bipolar disorder, there is a chemical imbalance between these.

Any foods that are ingested break down into a chemically-based composition of their own that can have an impact on any one of these neurotransmitters or any combination of them. So if the chemicals in the person’s brain are running one way, adding the wrong set of chemicals through food intake can further press the brain to react in a negative manner.

How to Learn More

To learn more about how certain foods can be used to manage bipolar symptoms (and other types of depression), “The Brain Chemistry Diet” by Michael Lesser, M.D. (Putnam Books, 2002) may be helpful. Lesser was one of the founders (along with the late Linus Pauling, Ph.D.) of the Orthomolecular Psychiatry Movement. 

Originally posted on Yahoo Health

- Headline Discoveries Magazine - Because of recent activity in Iceland, there have been many news reports done on volcano eruptions and the damages that can be caused by volcanic ash. So, just what is “volcanic ash?

THE ASSUMPTION
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It’s not what most people may envision. Typically, when most people think about ash, they picture something light and fluffy—like ashes in the fireplace or barbecue. So, when they hear that a volcano has erupted and everything is covered in ash, the natural assumption is that it is relatively harmless and can be easily swept away. Not true.

THE BLAST AND ITS COMPONENTS

Volcanic eruptions occur when gases in magma, or molten rock, expand and escape into the air. They also occur when water that is super-heated by magma abruptly flashes into steam, or when thermal contraction from chilling occurs after contacting water. Each
scenario leads to eruptions that occur with explosive force, causing escaping gases to shatter surrounding rock layers of the Earth. When eruptions occur in areas covered by glaciers, the resulting plume can contain glass-rich deposits that were created when melted ice quickly chilled lava prior to its explosion.

Material expelled from the volcano at this point is called ‘”tephra.” To better study components of a volcanic eruption, scientists have broken tephra into classifications based on size:

• Volcanic bombs or volcanic blocks: debris greater than 64mm in diameter (2.5”)
• Lapilli: debris 2-64mm in diameter (.078 to 2.5”)
• Ash: debris particles less than 2mm in diameter (.078”)

PERSPECTIVE

While the size of a volcanic bomb doesn’t seem so large, some perspective is needed. Take, for example, a storm producing hailstones of roughly the same size. They can
cause excessive damage to car windshields and even slate roofs. To a person struck by a volcanic bomb, the impact would feel something like getting hit with a baseball thrown by a major league pitcher due to the high rate of propulsion.
​
Volcanic bombs and lapilli do cause problems but, because they settle to the ground at a much quicker rate than ash, the extent of their damage is often not as far reaching. The tiny size of ash and its ability to readily travel everywhere means it can be a lot less apparent to ascertain the damages it can cause.

THE REALITY

Much has been written about the damage to people, animals, air, soil and water, but less so the damage and chaos that ash can cause to other things, especially those that are technologically and/or mechanically based. Following are just a few things that could be heavily impacted:

• Motors/Engines: internal combustion engines are prone to failure from volcanic ash due to the clogging of air filters; other parts can fail due to “sludge” forming between parts that need to move freely
• Paint Finishes: abrasive components of volcanic ash wear away finishes over time
• Electronics: items short-out due to dust particulates entering otherwise contained compartments; circuitry shorts-out
• Machinery: bearing, gears and any other movable parts that are not well-sealed are subject to damage and/or failure
• Power Sources: highly charged ash particles produce frequent electrical discharges causing damage from short circuiting
• Telecommunications: dust particles either scatter or absorbs radio signals preventing connections from occurring (think satellite TV, WiFi, FM-Radio, etc.)
• Roadways and runways become impassible: little to no visibility if dry, reduced visibility and extra slippery if wet
• Air filtration and water filtration systems fail: due to combination of ash clogging filters and affecting moving parts of system
• Building’s structural integrity fails: dry ash, 4” thick, weighs up to 200 pounds per square yard (twice as much when wet)

These examples show that volcanic ash is dramatically more devastating than it appears and has a great potential to leech its way into so many things that are important to the day-to-day operation of life for everyone in areas affected by volcanic eruptions.

Getting to the Bottom of It

The words "tephra" and "pyroclast" both derive from the Greek language.

• Tephra means "ash"
• Pyro means "fire"
• Klastos means "broken"

Properties of Volcanic Ash
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• Hard Substance, Minute in Size
• Cannot be Dissolved
• Extremely Abrasive
• Corrosive
• Conducts Electricity When Wet
• Heavy
• Difficult to Clean Up

Originally posted in Headline Discoveries, Fall 2010