Romaine Fans: Your Beloved Lettuce Is Safe Again
Great news lettuce lovers – the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has given an all-clear with regard to the recent E. coli outbreak associated with the greens grown in Arizona.
According to the FDA, the last shipments of Yuma romaine were harvested April 16th, which means that any romaine lettuce from the region that found its way to stores or restaurants is likely now past its 21-day shelf life.
One note - it can take two or three weeks to develop symptoms of E. coli. So other illnesses may be reported, but they aren’t likely to be a “new” strain.
Source: CDC
The U.S. Fertility Rate Is Sinking Fast
Babies are not being born here like they used to be.
Normally a strong economy and booming births go hand in hand, but that’s not the case now. The U.S. fertility rate is the lowest in 40 years and the decline is sharpest for minority women. The Centers for Disease Control reports last year's three-point-85 million births reflect a fertility rate of about one-point-76 births per woman.
Those figures are steep fall-offs from 2007 when more than four-point-three million babies were born and the fertility rate was nearly two-point-one. Figures the CDC released yesterday show declines in fertility rates for all women, but the biggest declines are among Hispanic, Native American or Alaska Native, and African American women.
Here’s the crazy part; the one sector of U.S. women who are having more babies are those in their early 40’s! Only 7-percent of teens are delivering kids. It turns out that Millennials are using more long term contraception and holding off on having a baby or two until later in life. Source: Fortune
NATIONAL GRADUATION TASSEL DAY – NATIONAL IDAHO DAY – NATIONAL PACK RAT DAY – NATIONAL CHERRY COBBLER DAY – NATIONAL WALNUT DAY
True Happiness is Found When You Turn Off Your Phone at This Exact Minute
Using mobile phones after 10 p.m. can trigger depression and loneliness, a study has revealed.
According to The Times, people who spend the night checking social media, watching television or roaming around their homes are more likely to suffer from mood problems such as neuroticism and bipolar disorder.
They are also more likely to rate themselves as unhappy and more lonely, the study in The Lancet Psychiatry says.
While researchers cannot prove that disruption to the body clock causes these problems, they argue that it is more evidence that modern life is scrambling our natural rhythms saying: “Daytime is time for activity and darkness is time for sleep.”
Previous studies have linked shift work that disrupts the natural 24-hour cycle of the body to a range of long-term health problems.
Professor Daniel Smith of the University of Glasgow says a 10 p.m. cut-off would give the average adult time to wind down before switching off the lights, he advised but “it’s not just what you do at night, it’s what you do during the day – trying to be active during the day and inactive in darkness. Especially in the winter, making sure you get out in the morning in the fresh air is just as important in getting a good night’s sleep as not being on your mobile phone.”
Program Donates Caps And Gowns To Grads So No One Misses Ceremony
Thanks to a program in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, students won’t have to miss graduation ceremonies because they can’t afford the cap and gown. The local Hmong Mutual Assistance Association started The Cap and Gown Recycling Program last year to provide the gear students need for commencement ceremonies free of charge to any student who needs it.
When the group learned that the $42 price tag for the basic cap and gown was a barrier forcing some low income students to skip graduation, they started collecting donated caps and gowns in local school colors. Recipients are welcome to keep the cap and gown, or return it to pay it forward for another student to use in the future.
The organization knows that pride can make young people reluctant to take handouts, so they don’t ask any questions of potential recipients. Executive Director Pa Thao says, “If you take it, we know you need it, and that’s all that matters.”
Source: The Leader Telegram
The Age When Puppies Reach Peak Cuteness
Most of us can agree that puppies are adorable, but according to new research, there’s actually an “optimal age” of puppy cuteness. A new study from Arizona State University’s Canine Science Collaboratory pinpoints the age when puppies reach “peak” cuteness: around eight weeks.
This research shows that puppies are most appealing to humans when they’re around six to eight weeks of age, which is also the time when they’re weaned from their mothers. So researchers think puppies reach maximum cuteness just when they need humans to take care of them.
"Just as their mother is getting sick of them and is going to kick them out of the den and they're going to have to make their own way in life, at that age, that is exactly when they are most attractive to human beings," lead study author Clive Wynne explains in a statement.
For the study, 51 lucky participants looked at photos of puppies at different ages from birth to seven months and were asked to rate their cuteness. They looked at three dog breeds: the Jack Russell terrier, the cane Corso, and the white shepherd. The cuteness ratings for the puppies were lowest at birth, peaked before 10 weeks, and declined before leveling off when the dogs were older.
But don’t worry, just because people find puppies cutest at eight weeks old, they don’t stop loving them after that. Wynne says that’s just the point “where the hook is the biggest” but once they grab our interest, “we continue to love them all their lives.”
Source: CBS News