Book Recommendations Mark as Read On Letting Go of the Idea of “Keeping Up” “So‚ what have you read lately?” It sounds like an innocent question‚ but it came with a pile of expectations. By Molly Templeton | Published on March 28‚ 2024 Photo by Jean Vella [via Unsplash] icon-comment 0 Share New Share Twitter Facebook Pinterest RSS Feed Photo by Jean Vella [via Unsplash] The first time I felt the tiniest spark of competition where books and reading are concerned‚ I was probably eight years old‚ thrilled to bits by a librarian’s instruction to put a gold star inside a construction paper folder—one for every fairy tale I read. There were at least two long rows of stars by the time I was done. I was only competing with myself: I wanted as many stars as I could possibly get‚ and given my love for fairy tales‚ this wasn’t particularly difficult. But lately—and by lately I mean the last decade‚ give or take a few years—I’ve noticed a different sense of competition about reading. And competition isn’t even exactly the right word; it’s not like people are jumping online to yell about being first to finish the next Brandon Sanderson tome. (If they are‚ don’t tell me.) But there’s no word that means exactly what I see and feel. It’s a combination of obligation‚ social performance‚ genuine curiosity‚ love of books‚ and a desire to be involved‚ plus a dollop of early-adopterism and cheerleading.  All of these things are good‚ in balance. But they’re also easy to knock out of balance‚ shifting the vibe of talking about books online from “this thing I want to do” to “this thing we wind up feeling like we have to keep up with.” Reading itself should be productive‚ in the sense that it produces ideas and feelings and thoughts and empathy and a lot of other things‚ too‚ across the whole range of human experience. The kind of productivity I mean is the quantifying kind‚ the kind that wants to get to a certain number of books read‚ or tick all the bingo boxes‚ or simply read more books than someone else did. Sometimes it arises in the form of a complaint: “Ugh‚ I’m so behind on my Goodreads challenge.” For one thing‚ this is just a branded way of saying “I’m not reading as much lately as I’d like to be.” This is Goodreads inserting itself into your reading life and reshaping the way you talk about books. But it’s also more than that. It’s turning reading into a task‚ a tickybox‚ a number of pages or books. It’s setting a productivity framework around something that doesn’t need it. Yes‚ you set your own goals‚ but even if you’re entirely self-directed and pay no attention to the norms or the huge numbers of books other people read‚ some of us aren’t quite so independent. Those numbers influence people. They make reading very fast‚ tearing through book after book‚ seem like the norm.  If you read slowly‚ that’s okay. If you read very few books‚ that’s okay too. The secret truth is that there is absolutely no reason to care how many books you read in a year‚ unless you like stats and numbers and tracking things and in that case‚ might I suggest a spreadsheet and doing your own tracking‚ far from the Goodreads crowd. About a decade ago‚ I had only just discovered that a person could stumble into rooms where people hung out‚ discussing books. They were also discussing authors and gossip and how bad the box wine was and how long the subway ride home would be‚ but they were there because of books‚ because these rooms were bookstores during author events. I had moved back to New York‚ which had a lot more bookish events than the college town where I’d been living. I got myself a bookstore job and became part of the book ecosystem‚ delighting in access to galleys and trying to find just the right book for customers. It was a world I had not expected to find myself in‚ and I loved it. I loved the conversations and the enthusiasm and the lit gossip and the people‚ and I loved feeling like part of it. But there was a weird side to it‚ sometimes. There could be a sense of just having to hold opinions about certain books or authors‚ or having to have already read new books. And then the weirdest thing happened: I found myself in a situation where I simply did not want to talk about books. At all.  This was an extremely strange experience‚ anathema to everything I’d ever felt where books were concerned. But in the basement of a bookstore‚ a friend’s friend asked‚ an intense gleam in their eye‚ “So‚ Molly‚ what have you read lately?” It sounds like an innocent question‚ but it came with a pile of expectations. This person kept up with everything. This person wanted to know what they could tick off the list with me. Had I read Big Book X? Had I gotten my hands on an advance copy of Massive Novel Y? Did I have opinions about the books a person in my job “ought” to have opinions on? I did not‚ and what’s more‚ in that moment‚ I didn’t want to. I didn’t want to talk about what I’d been reading in the way this person wanted me to respond. I suddenly wanted to hold my cards‚ and my books‚ extremely close to the chest. Reading felt gamified‚ like a thing where you went down a list of titles and got points for which ones you’d read. This was no longer gold stars inside a folder. This was something else entirely. This vibe has crept into so much online book discourse. People stress about not having time to read—a fair complaint‚ but one that has a different tone when the subtext (or text!) is “I’m getting behind.” Behind on what‚ and to whom? Who is served by all this stress‚ by reading challenges and goals and lists and shelfies and book hauls? What is it for? What are we getting out of it? What difference does it make if you read a book that came out last week or one that came out last century? If these things bring you joy‚ by all means: continue. If you just don’t even notice them: Bless you‚ I envy that ease! But if‚ like me‚ you find both that you can’t ignore the social-media side of reading and find it sometimes overwhelming‚ and depressing‚ and makes you feel like there’s a right and a wrong way to read a book‚ please: Give yourself space. Step away from the internet. Ignore the websites that want you to rate and review art like it’s a toothbrush or a new pair of sneakers. Don’t even keep a list of books read‚ if you don’t want to. What we get from reading is not quantifiable‚ not a statistic to earn or an item to collect. It’s an experience‚ a process‚ an education‚ a gift. You will get something out of it whether you read 10 books a year or 100. And no one has to know‚ either way.[end-mark] The post On Letting Go of the Idea of “Keeping Up” appeared first on Reactor.

Lists movies Five Films With Unexpected Genre Shifts One minute you’re watching a crime thriller or historical drama‚ and the next you’re knee-deep in sci fi or horror… By Lorna Wallace | Published on March 28‚ 2024 icon-comment 1 Share New Share Twitter Facebook Pinterest RSS Feed The vast majority of films remain the same genre (or the same mix of genres) throughout their entire runtime‚ but every so often a film that seems to be telling one kind of story switches to another part way through. There are‚ of course‚ a few films where this abrupt change is expected from the beginning: Anyone pressing play on James Cameron’s Titanic (1997)‚ for instance‚ has it in the back of their mind that the romance between Jack (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Rose (Kate Winslet) is going to be rudely interrupted by an iceberg‚ turning the love story into a disaster/survival story. Below I’ve compiled a list of five films which I think brilliantly execute unexpected genre shifts. Some may consider the following discussion of these films to be spoiler-y—I’ll try to avoid major plot points‚ but if you don’t want to know anything about the twists and turns of these films‚ consider yourself warned as I will mention (or at least hint at) the genre switch in each. (The same goes for the trailers below‚ most of which tease or reveal a bit more than you might expect…) From Dusk Till Dawn (1996) I’m kicking this list off with one of the best-known genre shift films: Robert Rodriguez’s From Dusk Till Dawn. The film starts off as a tense crime story‚ with brothers Seth (George Clooney) and Richie Gecko (Quentin Tarantino‚ who also wrote the screenplay) on the run for robbery and murder. Wanting to cross into Mexico‚ they kidnap a father (Harvey Keitel) who is vacationing with his two teenage children (Juliette Lewis and Ernest Liu) and force the family to smuggle them across the border. About halfway through the movie‚ the group make it to the Gecko brothers’ destination: the Titty Twister‚ an isolated strip club in the desert. There’s a palpable feeling that sh*t is going to hit the fan‚ but the form that sh*t takes completely changes the film’s genre. If you’ve managed to avoid the twist of this movie for all these years‚ then here’s your warning to stop reading… It turns out that the Titty Twister is actually home to a group of bloodthirsty vampires who feast on their patrons‚ forcing our unlikely gang to work together to avoid becoming dinner. From this point on the film becomes an enjoyably violent B-movie; it’s pulpy‚ it’s bloody‚ and it’s full of fangs. One Cut of the Dead (2017) I’m a big fan of zombie movies‚ so I was down to watch One Cut of the Dead‚ which was written‚ directed‚ and edited by Shin’ichirô Ueda‚ just based on the zombie aspect; I had no idea going in that the film would be playing around with genre. Although some people think that the zombie genre is nothing but a mindless shambling corpse itself these days‚ I promise that One Cut of the Dead offers a fresh take. The film starts with a single continuous shot that lasts 37 minutes. We follow a group of actors and crew as they attempt to make a low-budget zombie flick‚ which isn’t going so smoothly thanks to the demands of intense director Takayuki Higurashi (Takayuki Hamatsu). But his anger issues are soon eclipsed by the appearance of actual zombies. Desperate for the film to be a hit‚ Higurashi recklessly insists on keeping the camera rolling. That’s all the plot I’m going to reveal‚ because this film really benefits from the element of surprise. Just trust me when I say that it becomes both innovative and funny‚ and while its first section may feel clunky‚ you’ll be rewarded if you stick with it—I even found myself wanting to restart it as soon as the credits rolled! The Prestige (2006) Personally I find Christopher Nolan’s films to be pretty hit or miss‚ but The Prestige is a definite hit in my eyes. Based on the novel by Christopher Priest and set during the Victorian era‚ this period drama film follows the bitter rivalry between two stage magicians‚ aristocratic Robert Angier (Hugh Jackman) and working-class Alfred Borden (Christian Bale). The animosity between the pair feels raw and real‚ and their various magic tricks are impressive and intriguing. One trick in particular is more intriguing than all the others though‚ that being Borden’s “The Transported Man‚” which sees him seemingly teleport across the stage. Angier is obsessed with finding out how this illusion is done and pulling that string eventually leads him to inventor Nikola Tesla (David Bowie—a truly brilliant casting choice). The film enters genre-switch territory at this point… and that genre can probably be guessed given the film’s inclusion of a fictionalized version of Tesla. I can understand why the introduction of certain speculative elements might be off-putting to some who’d expected the film to continue as a psychological thriller (especially those unfamiliar with the original novel)—people who dislike The Prestige often cite it as one of their main criticisms‚ along with Angier and Borden’s destructive obsession making them unlikable characters (which I think is the point!). To each their own‚ but I leaned in to all the various twists and loved it. Overlord (2018) Overlord opens with an American paratrooper squad being shot down over France in a scene that is so chaotically brutal that it’s on par with battle scenes from Saving Private Ryan (1998) and Hacksaw Ridge (2016). Four surviving soldiers—played by Wyatt Russell‚ Jovan Adepo‚ John Magaro‚ and Iain De Caestecker—band together to complete their mission to destroy a Nazi-controlled radio tower near Normandy. A good portion of this film plays like a typical World War II movie—there’s the evasion of Nazi forces‚ the infiltration of a base‚ and the befriending of a French villager—but the film eventually winds up in the realm of sci-fi and horror. Our soldiers discover that the Nazis are performing some disturbing scientific experiments—but what exactly those experiments are I’ll leave for you to discover. All you need to know is that their scientific tinkering leads to some gory body horror‚ but it doesn’t feel that scary. Director Julius Averywent on to make The Pope’s Exorcist (2023) after all‚ so the scares tend to lean towards entertaining silliness rather than nightmare fuel. Bone Tomahawk (2015) S. Craig Zahler’s Bone Tomahawk has a classic Western setup: it’s the late 1800s and the sheriff of a little town called Bright Hope must lead a rescue party into the wilderness after three people are captured by unknown (and allegedly cannibalistic) assailants. For a while the film proceeds like a regular Western—there’s horses and campfires and shootouts‚ oh my! Our classically heroic Sheriff Hunt is played by Kurt Russell‚ who is always a joy to watch (particularly when he’s sporting fun facial hair!)‚ but the posse soon develops an uneasy dynamic. There’s Deputy Chicory (Richard Jenkins)‚ who is well-meaning but perhaps a little too old for the mission‚ Arthur O’Dwyer (Patrick Wilson)‚ who has a severely injured leg but insists on coming along because his wife is one of the abductees‚ and John Brooder (Matthew Fox)‚ whose morals might not be quite in the line with the others. Once the film hits its third act‚ things take a turn for the truly horrific. Now‚ it’s fair to say that classic Westerns tend to have a lot of killing in them‚ but it’s not usually can’t-look-at-the-screen grisly. Bone Tomahawk‚ on the hand‚ offers up such gruesomely stomach-churning visuals that it turns into a full-on horror movie. If that sounds like your can of campfire beans‚ enjoy! Have you got any recommendations of films that succeed in pulling off an effective or surprising genre shift? Drop them in the comments below![end-mark] The post Five Films With Unexpected Genre Shifts appeared first on Reactor.

NYPD Tells City Council to Stay Away From Slain Officer's Funeral

EW: POTATUS Doing Some Voter Outreach‚ Fancy Fundraising With Obama‚ Queen Latifah and...Wait - Lizzo?

As if we needed any more evidence of the wonder of dogs‚ new research is showing that some service pups may be able to add a new skill to their resumes. As well as those that sniff out serious conditions like cancer and Parkinson’s disease‚ some proficient pooches may be able to detect symptoms such as oncoming flashbacks in people with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).PTSD is an often debilitating mental health condition that arises after exposure to a traumatic event‚ such as violence witnessed during military service. People with PTSD can re-experience their trauma over and over again in the form of flashbacks‚ nightmares‚ or distressing sensations‚ which can make daily life difficult to manage. There’s a wealth of anecdotal evidence from people with PTSD that the companionship of a service dog can be life-changing – but it’s only comparatively recently that research has begun to explore this scientifically. Dogs can be trained to learn when their handlers are experiencing difficult symptoms and to interrupt them‚ but scientists behind a recent paper wondered whether this could be taken to the next level. Could dogs be trained‚ not just to assist people during episodes‚ but to predict when an episode might happen?The multidisciplinary research team suspected the key could lie in the profile of scent compounds (called volatile organic compounds or VOCs) that all of us emit in our sweat and other secretions. VOC profiles differ according to age‚ genetic factors‚ and other variables like stress. Since dogs’ impressive noses seem to be able to sniff out these changes‚ could they also be able to smell the stress that precedes the onset of PTSD symptoms like flashbacks?Twenty-six people volunteered to take part in an experiment‚ of whom all had experienced trauma‚ and 54 percent met the criteria for a PTSD diagnosis. They wore disposable face masks to collect two breath samples‚ one while they were in a calm environment and another while they were being asked to recall their trauma.Then it was time to bring in the dogs. Of the 25 pet dogs who were trialed‚ only two extremely good girls made the grade; Ivy‚ a 5-6-year-old Red Golden Retriever; and Callie‚ a 3-4-year-old German Shepherd/Belgian Malinois mix.Ivy hard at work detecting scents.Image credit: Kiiroja et al‚ Frontiers in Allergy 2024 (CC BY 4.0)“Both Ivy and Callie found this work inherently motivating‚” explained first author Laura Kiiroja in a statement. “Their limitless appetite for delicious treats was also an asset. In fact‚ it was much harder to convince them to take a break than to commence work. Callie in particular made sure there was no dilly-dallying.”Having only two dogs was fine for the purposes of this proof-of-concept study‚ which was just to try and figure out if using dogs to detect VOCs related to PTSD symptoms was even possible. Over a period of four months for Ivy and five months for Callie‚ during which they worked for 13 and 17 days respectively‚ the dogs were trained to detect and signal the presence of VOCs associated with stress. They managed 90 percent accuracy in choosing between a stress and a non-stress sample. When presented with samples one at a time‚ they both detected the stress samples with a high level of accuracy: 74 percent for Ivy and 81 percent for Callie.Callie signals to her handler that the sample is stress-negative.Image credit: Kiiroja et al‚ Frontiers in Allergy 2024 (CC BY 4.0)“Although both dogs performed at very high accuracy‚ they seemed to have a slightly different idea of what they considered a 'stressed' breath sample‚” Kiiroja said. “We speculated that Ivy was attuned to sympathetic-adreno-medullar axis hormones (like adrenaline) and Callie was oriented to the hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenal axis hormones (like cortisol). This is important knowledge for training service dogs‚ as alerting to early-onset PTSD symptoms requires sensitivity to sympathetic-adreno-medullar axis hormones.”With this proof-of-concept in the bag‚ the team plans further research to confirm which hormones are involved‚ and to try out the test with larger sample sizes. It's still a way off‚ but in the future‚ these protocols could be embedded into the training for PTSD service dogs‚ enhancing their already considerable abilities.We just hope Callie and Ivy got extra treats after that performance!The study is published in the journal Frontiers in Allergy. 

News of Japan's Smart Lander for Investigating Moon's (SLIM) demise are greatly exaggerated. SLIM landed on the Moon in late January‚ demonstrating high precision landing on another world – unfortunately‚ it landed a little wonky which complicated the whole operation. Still‚ the tech was clearly strong enough to survive the dramatic drop in temperature experienced during the unforgiving lunar night – not once but twice!When SLIM landed on January 19‚ its compromised position meant that it couldn’t use its solar panels to power up. While the position was unfortunate‚ at least SLIM was leaning in the right direction. As the Moon rotated around the Earth‚ the Sun began shining on the inclined surface where the solar panels were‚ providing needed juice.In late February‚ the Japanese Space Agency (JAXA) reported that SLIM managed to survive its first lunar night. And now they report that the sturdy slanted lander has done it again – although its future is still uncertain.“Last night‚ we received a response from #SLIM‚ confirming that the spacecraft made it through the lunar night for the second time! Since the sun was still high and the equipment was still hot‚ we only took some shots of the usual scenery with the navigation camera‚” JAXA reported on the SLIM Twitter account.“According to the acquired data‚ some temperature sensors and unused battery cells are starting to malfunction‚ but the majority of functions that survived the first lunar night was maintained even after the second lunar night!”  IFLScience is not responsible for content shared from external sites.All good things come in threes‚ so we can hope that SLIM will survive for a third night‚ but whether it does or not‚ it has far exceeded expectations. SLIM stands for Smart Lander for Investigating Moon. Its goal was to demonstrate that it is possible to land on another world with incredible precision. The objective was to soft-land within just 100 meters (330 feet) of a specific target area. Based on the current dataset‚ it appears to have landed just 55 meters (180 feet) from the target area.This lunar night might have spared SLIM but it claimed Odysseus‚ which also landed on its side. This is not a new fad that all the cool lunar landers are doing. It just shows how difficult it is to soft-land even on a place as close as the Moon. Odysseus was the first US lander in 50 years to land on the Moon and the first private lander to not crash-land on the lunar surface. Its owner‚ Intuitive Machines‚ confirmed that it did not wake up a few days ago.

Indigenous leaders from across the Pacific have officially ratified the He Whakaputanga Moana (Declaration for the Ocean)‚ a document that calls for whales to have legal personhood and all the rights that come with it."The sound of our ancestor's song has grown weaker‚ and her habitat is under threat‚ which is why we must act now‚" said KÄ«ngi Theitia Ptatau Te Wherowhero VII‚ the King of New Zealand’s Indigenous M&;amacr;ori people‚ in a statement about the declaration seen by AFP.The He Whakaputanga Moana aims to act by taking a step up from previous conservation attempts by giving whales the same rights as people. There's an existing precedent for this‚ particularly in New Zealand‚ where that status has already been given to the Whanganui River; it has the same rights as a human‚ which means that if the river is harmed‚ legally‚ that's the same as harming a human. The same goes for a Spanish lagoon that's been granted personhood‚ which (or who maybe?) can even sue polluters.Legal personhood for whales could be the same (imagine a whale in a courtroom)‚ also including “the right to freedom of movement‚ a healthy environment‚ and the ability to thrive alongside humanity‚” wrote Mere Takoko for Atmos. Takoko is the vice president of Conservation International Aotearoa (New Zealand) and established its Hinemoana Halo Ocean Initiative‚ which aims to bring people together to create marine protected areas.Alongside KÄ«ngi Theitia‚ Indigenous leaders from the Cook Islands‚ Tonga‚ Tahiti‚ Hawai'i‚ and Rapanui all signed the He Whakaputanga Moana to support giving whales legal personhood‚ as well as the establishment of a Hinemoana Halo Ocean Protection Fund to provide the resources to achieve the declaration’s outlined goals.The declaration is also focused on collaboration‚ and not just between the Indigenous leaders who ratified the document – though there’s a strong emphasis on ensuring the inclusion of Indigenous knowledge. “To succeed‚ we need collaboration on a grand scale‚” wrote Takoko. “With the support of Conservation International‚ Indigenous leaders‚ and coastal communities‚ we are extending our hand of friendship to scientists‚ policymakers‚ and all those who call the Pacific home. Every person can make an impact‚ too‚ regardless of occupation.”Though recent years have seen increased conservation efforts‚ six out of the 13 great whale species are still currently classed as endangered‚ including North Atlantic right whales‚ humpbacks‚ and of course‚ the mighty blue whale. Boat strikes‚ entanglement in fishing nets‚ and an increasingly noisy and polluted ocean continue to threaten whales.It’s hoped that by taking the "more holistic approach" outlined in the declarations‚ whale populations will be better protected."We can no longer turn a blind eye‚" high chief of the Cook Islands‚ Travel Tou Ariki‚ said in a statement. "Whales play a vital role in the health of our entire ocean ecosystem. Their decline disrupts the delicate balance that sustains all life in Te Moana (the sea).""We must act with urgency to protect these magnificent creatures before it's too late."If whales are granted legal personhood‚ they'd be joining the likes of animals including Pablo Escobar's cocaine hippos and an elderly orangutan who was freed from captivity thanks to her new status. And who knows‚ we might even be seeing them at a polling booth sometime soon.

We know by now that the deep ocean is full of frankly bizarre-looking animals like Barbie pigs and funky things with tentacles‚ and we love it. Now deep-sea sea cucumbers are getting in on the act‚ with three new species discovered in the South China Sea.Five scientific expeditions from 2018-2023 were taken using the crewed submersible vehicle Shenhaiyongshi. The submersible went to depths of between 1‚340 and 3‚806 meters (4‚396-12‚487 feet)‚ where it carefully scooped up specimens of yellowish white and orange spiky-looking creatures.The new species of sea cucumbers have been named Oneirophanta idsseica‚ O. brunneannulata‚ and O. lucerna and can be told apart from each other by the number of tube feet on their bodies‚ of which they have quite a few. The species O. idsseica is given the common name the IDSSE sea cucumber after the Chinese research center the Institute of Deep-Sea Science and Engineering (IDSSE)‚ of which both study authors are members. New species: Oneirophanta idsseica.Image credit: Yunlu Xiao and Haibin Zhang‚ ZooKeys 2024 (CC BY 4.0)The team also saw a known species‚ O. mutabilis mutabilis‚ for the first time in an area known as the Mariana fore-arc and they managed to spot Deima validum validum for only the second time in the South China Sea.Over the course of these expeditions 11 specimens were collected‚ which all belong to the genus Oneirophanta. These 11 represent three new species‚ bringing the total number of species in the genus up to six. To come to this conclusion the team took careful images of these animals and examined them with a scanning electron microscope‚ and performed DNA analysis. One thing these three new species have in common is tube feet. Tube feet can be used for everything from locomotion to feeding and even to attach themselves to substrate on the sea floor. O. idsseica has between 40 and 50 pairs of tube feet in the middle of its body‚ while O. brunneannulata has 37 pairs and O. lucerna has only 11-14 pairs of tube feet on each body side. Oneirophanta brunneannulata – 37 pairs of tube feet might be overkill?Image credit: Yunlu Xiao and Haibin Zhang‚ ZooKeys 2024 (CC BY 4.0)The team think that there may be even more species in the Pacific Zone and that more research is needed to explore the species diversity and distribution of these unusual animals. The study is published in ZooKeys.

Taking cannabidiol (CBD) for chronic pain is unlikely to have much of an effect‚ but it may at least relieve you of some of the weight in your wallet‚ a new study has found. After analyzing the results of existing clinical trials involving CBD‚ researchers found that there is simply no evidence that the compound actually alleviates pain in chronic patients.As a non-psychoactive cannabinoid‚ CBD is currently the only component of the cannabis plant that can legally be sold in many countries. Pharmaceutical-grade CBD is also sometimes prescribed for certain types of epilepsy‚ multiple sclerosis‚ and chemotherapy-related nausea.For those without a script‚ however‚ non-medical CBD is freely available – not to mention highly popular‚ despite its hefty price tag. According to the authors of the new study‚ around half of all consumers are thought to use the cannabinoid for pain relief.Such a statistic is remarkable when one considers that in 2021‚ the International Association for the Study of Pain found that there were no high-quality clinical trials showing the efficacy of CBD in treating chronic pain. At the time‚ they concluded that the low-quality studies out there showed little evidence that the compound has analgesic (pain-relieving) effects‚ as opposed to evidence of CBD having no analgesic effects.By 2023‚ however‚ 16 clinical trials involving actual pain patients had been conducted. These studies varied wildly in their design and looked at a total of 12 distinct types of pain‚ using different CBD dosages and routes of administration.In 15 of these 16 trials‚ CBD was no more effective than a placebo at alleviating chronic pain‚ suggesting the buzz surrounding the cannabinoid may be baseless. The one exception was a study on patients with thumb arthritis‚ in which all participants experienced significant reductions in pain after two weeks of treatment with CBD.“CBD presents consumers with a big problem‚” explained study author Professor Chris Eccleston in a statement. “It’s touted as a cure for all pain but there’s a complete lack of quality evidence that it has any positive effects.”Despite this‚ surveys have indicated that 26 percent of adults under 65 in the US currently use the cannabinoid‚ as do 16 percent of those in Canada. “Most used CBD for a chronic condition‚ often spending more than $140 a month‚” write the researchers.“For too many people with chronic pain‚ there’s no medicine that manages their pain‚” added study author Dr Andrew Moore. “Chronic pain can be awful‚ so people are very motivated to find pain relief by any means. This makes them vulnerable to the wild promises made about CBD‚” he said.Unfortunately‚ many companies that supply non-medical CBD are all too eager to cash in on this desperation‚ often making unfounded claims as to the compound’s analgesic effects. In many cases‚ these assertions are based on data from preclinical studies showing potential mechanisms by which CBD may alleviate pain in animals.However‚ as the results of the new analysis highlight‚ such findings don’t always translate into actual effects in humans‚ and jumping on a health craze bandwagon before proper clinical trials have been conducted is never a smart idea. On this point‚ the researchers lament that “marketing is leading without the benefits and harms of CBD being known.”To make matters worse‚ the study authors also found that a lack of market regulation or quality control has severely compromised the safety of many CBD products. For example‚ only one in four of the 105 products sampled in one study actually contained the amount of CBD listed on the label‚ with true contents varying “from almost nothing to very large amounts.”Around 35 percent of products tested also contained the psychoactive cannabinoid tetrahydrocannabinol (THC)‚ despite being advertised as “CBD only”. Some were even found to contain synthetic cannabinoids instead of actual CBD‚ including one product that was linked to a series of poisonings in Utah.The authors therefore conclude that “there is no good reason for thinking that CBD relieves pain‚ but there are good reasons for doubting the contents of CBD products in terms of CBD content and purity.”“Current evidence is that CBD for pain is expensive‚ ineffective‚ and possibly harmful‚” they add.The study has been published in The Journal of Pain.

Adding to the growing list of UFO encounters‚ a retired Japanese fighter pilot has come forward with his own extraordinary experience. Mamoru Sato‚ who served as an Air Defense Force Base Commander and boasts a distinguished 34-year career‚ shares a harrowing tale from the skies above Japan. During what was supposed to be a standard training exercise at Matsushima Air Base‚ a trainee pilot reported a baffling sight—a cigar-shaped object stationary in the sky. This sighting was corroborated by the pilot in the front seat‚ while the instructor in the rear seat remained oblivious to the phenomenon. The incident escalated when the aircraft began to malfunction in a manner not typical of standard mechanical issues—no warning lights‚ no usual indicators. The pilot struggled with the controls‚ finding it nearly impossible to steer. Then‚ as suddenly as it had appeared‚ the UFO disappeared‚ and the aircraft’s controls returned to normal. However‚ the mystery deepened when the UFO made a second appearance as the pilot attempted to land. This time‚ the control issues resurfaced‚ and even the previously skeptical instructor witnessed the UFO‚ validating the trainee’s initial report. Mamoru Sato‚ Retired veteran Japanese fighter pilot and Air Defense Force Base Commander with 34 years of service‚ gives one account of an incident with a UFO in Japanese skies. I have added English subtitles.His self introduction is in reply tweet.#ufotwitter #UAPtwitter pic.twitter.com/exKUQnkzvb — Nathan Laing (@NathanL01084789) March 20‚ 2024 This account joins a series of similar experiences shared by American fighter jet pilots and others‚ suggesting that the phenomenon of UFOs is not limited by geography. As the search for answers continues‚ the experiences of pilots like Mamoru Sato provide valuable insights into the ongoing enigma of UFOs. What lies behind these mysterious sightings in our skies? The question remains open‚ inviting both skepticism and wonder in equal measure. The post Retired Japanese fighter pilot saw a UFO that did what his plane couldn’t do appeared first on Anomalien.com.