In February 2021, then-president Kristina Johnson launched an initiative to hire 50 professors whose work focused on race and “social equity” and “100 underrepresented and BIPOC hires” (the acronym stands for black, indigenous and people of color). These reports show what higher education’s outsize investment in “diversity, equity and inclusion” looks like in practice. Ohio State sacrificed both academic freedom and scholarly excellence for the sake of a narrowly construed vision of diversity.
WSJ: New Approach to Back Pain
WSJ: New Approach to Back Pain
It seems like everyone I know has suffered from a bout of lower back pain. What we used to call Lumbago, and is now, often called Sciatica.
Symptoms may range from a twinge when remaining in a particular position too long up to being unable to move without excruciating pain. Every doctor had the patient go through the same process.
Let’s try stretching exercises, then medicated patches, moving on to steroid shots. Hopefully, the problem resolves itself by that point. Surgery is the last resort.
Common causes include injury, arthritis and degenerative changes in the spine. It tends to start at midlife with the natural wear and tear of aging. But often there is no clearly identifiable physical cause, leaving patients to veer from one ineffective treatment to another—including highly addictive prescription opioids.
The patient doesn’t veer, the doctors do.
Studies have shown that nonsurgical approaches can be more effective and less expensive than surgery.
I’ve known two people who progressed to back surgery. Both had a full recovery with no return of symptoms. Both were tall guys who were college athletes.
In a study at multiple sites nationwide, researchers are testing the effectiveness of four nonsurgical treatments in connection with specific personal traits of patients. Each treatment has been shown to work, though not equally well for everyone.
The four treatments: acceptance-and-commitment therapy, which helps people learn new skills for dealing with pain; duloxetine, a medication used for depression, anxiety and chronic musculoskeletal pain; an online program with personalized messages to teach lifestyle skills for pain management; and a form of exercise therapy with stretches, strength training and hands- on treatment by a physical therapist or chiropractor.
Three of those treatments would feel like the doctor isn’t doing anything.
In the first clinical trial of PRT [Pain Reprocessing Therapy], co-led by Ashar, 151 people with mild to moderate back pain were randomized into three groups. One got four weeks of intensive PRT, one received a placebo saline injection in the back, and one received care as usual. With PRT, 66% reported being pain free or nearly so after treatment, while only 20% of people who had the placebo and 10% of those in usual care reported similar improvements.
It’s pretty obvious that the medical community doesn’t understand back pain or how the spine works. Training people to live with the pain is not a decent answer. Better research is needed to determine what treatments will work for specific causes.
WSJ: Stop Worrying About Sleep
WSJ: Stop Worrying About Sleep
Everyone knows that getting eight hours of sleep is the key to health and happiness.
Everyone should know to doubt anything that everyone knows. The knowledge that “everyone knows” is built from half-assed news reports, advertising and unverified assertions made often enough.
Thomas Edison only slept 4 hours per night, but he was a dick. Nikola Tesla slept about 2 hours per night, but he wasn’t mentally or emotionally stable.
The trick is to know that everyone is different, and to pay attention to what works for you. I do well at 1 1/2 hour intervals. I can sleep for 6, 7.5 or 9 hours and feel refreshed, but if I do 6 hours for more than a few days, it takes a toll.
But one of the worst things you can do about your lack of sleep is to stress out about it, say scientists and doctors. Forcing yourself to try to sleep better will backfire.
“The more you focus on going to sleep, you’re not able to sleep,” says Dr. Reena Mehra, director of sleep-disorders research at Cleveland Clinic. “It works against the individual.”
People obsess over mundane human requirements like sleeping, drinking water or eating at specific times due to some news article they’ve read or heard about on NPR. It’s best to not obsess over things humans have done for thousands of years.
No matter how you vote or what you think of the events at the Capitol on January 6th, 2021, it unconscionable that all video had not been immediately made public.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) publicly released footage from the events of Jan. 6, 2021.
House Republicans had the authority to release the video, and they did not.
This video looks like American citizens were entrapped. It’s a small sample, but for the stability of the country, all video should have been made available many months ago.
AutoBlog: NTSB calls for Speed Limiters on Cars
After investigating a three-vehicle accident that happened in Las Vegas in January 2022, the NTSB is again recommending a few measures to curb speeding, one of them being the “need for intelligent speed assistance (ISA) technology and countermeasures including interlock program for repeat speeding offenders.”
We already have plenty of laws, but DA’s and the DOJ choose to enforce them selectively. It is irresponsible of the NTSB to make a major policy recommendation that will effect every car buyer in America based on one horrendous car accident.
The NTSB says it is only making a recommendation. If this gains traction, all automakers will comply based on the threat of lawsuits. The entire Covid Shut Down disaster was based on mere recommendations by Anthony Fauci. A generation of children were emotionally and intellectually damaged because school districts covered their asses by following the recommendations.
When car companies start designing cars to work against the car owners, it won’t stop.
Republicans currently are in the majority in the House of Representatives. The Transportation and Infrastructure Committee should hold hearings to question the NTSB to learn who is responsible for this governmental overreach.
For the first hunt of the season, it was 48o and raining.
There is no such thing as bad weather if you are wearing the right stuff. When talking about a heavy coat or light jacket, we usually aren’t talking about the actual weight of the garment. My hunting jacket has some heft. Wearing it almost feels like armor. It has a tough Gore-Tex shell with a thick liner. Gun season is after Thanksgiving, so it’s a winter jacket. I thought it would be overkill for today, but with the rain, it kept me toasty.
For me, the first hunt is always a proof-of-concept test. Hoping I packed the right equipment, everything works and there are deer in the vicinity. I really want to see some deer, but don’t need to shoot one on the first outting.
That’s how it worked out.
When I parked and started kitting up, I heard rustling in the woods. Could be just the wind in the few leaves that remained, but it sounded like something was moving. After a couple of minutes, the deer feeder activated. It sounded like one of those New Year’s Eve noise makers. The rattling is obnoxious, but it’s a dinner bell for the deer. It didn’t take long for a big doe to pop out of the woods.
That feeder is set up more for gun season, so I was too far away to take a shot.
I quietly made my way to the deer stand where I took the photo, hoping the doe would wander by. No luck on that one, but 20 minutes later, a buck came walking along the yard. The buck didn’t have a nice rack, but was big with plenty of muscle. Kind of like some of those top-tier female athletes.
That buck walked right passed, but remained on the lawn, about 5 yards from the tree line. It didn’t come in close enough to take a shot.
Ten minutes after that, two middling does came along the tree line following the buck. Still, not a good shot with a crossbow. Had they come in, they might not have been worth bagging. It takes just as much time and money to gut and process a little deer, but the yield is much less. A big deer tends to be smarter and more cautious, and is tougher to hump out of the woods. The prudent hunter waits for the right shot on a good-sized deer.
After waiting an hour, but not getting any more traffic, I hiked the property. Two deer were flushed out of deep brush. It was mid-morning and raining pretty hard, so the deer were hunkering down. The deer saw me before I saw them, so they bolted with no chance for tracking or shooting.
I don’t need to lug a carcass out of the woods for it to be a great hunt. Next time, I need to get an earlier start and bring some buck jam or scent to lure them into range.
Everyone knows that the replacement women of the MCU have been a disaster, but nobody is supposed to point that out.
It doesn’t matter that the female characters have been in the comic books for decades nor does it matter that they are women. They are just insufferable.
In 2011, when Thor was released, Natalie Portman was a drag and had no chemistry with Chris Hemsworth. Kat Dennings had much more on-screen charisma. This was way before the M-She-U, and Portman had already worn out her welcome.
In 2021, when the Hawkeye TV show aired, Hailee Steinfeld was so juvenile and impetuous, watching the show was a tedious chore. Florence Pugh saved the show.
Tatiana Maslany was incredible in Orphan Black. If you haven’t seen it, she plays something like eight different characters, all clones and all distinct. The viewer could tell which character she was portraying without her even speaking. I thought I could watch her in anything, but She-Hulk was about as bad as a TV show can get.
It isn’t the fault of the actresses. The writers didn’t just decide to introduce female characters, but thought that tearing down and discrediting the men was the way to do it. The audience doesn’t have to be particularly attentive or knowledgeable to notice that the MCU hates men.
The Critical Drinker explains it in his review of The Marvels.
I am not happy that Disney destroyed the MCU franchise, but I am pleased to see the company get hammered for taking such a divisive and hateful approach to an established portion of our pop culture.
I’m not proud of the immense schadenfruede that comes from The Marvels being beaten at the box office by Five Nights at Freddy’s, a movie with a budget of $20 million.
Other MCU movies are on the schedule, but not as many or very soon. It will be interesting to see if Disney fires anyone or changes direction.
I put the camera on the shed to get a better video of Sparky’s Moose Run.
Sparky knows the game. He is getting Mr. Moose back whether he runs or not, but he loves the chase. A dog of his age shouldn’t over do it, so we keep the sessions short. Sparky would run til he drops.
I am rethinking the camera position. Onboard the Maxx may not be the best place.
WSJ: Oregon Decriminalized Hard Drugs
WSJ: Oregon Decriminalized Hard Drugs
EUGENE, Ore.—Soon after Oregon became the first state to decriminalize all drugs in 2020, Officer Jose Alvarez stopped arresting people for possession and began giving out tickets with the number for a rehab helpline.
People sprawled on sidewalks and using fentanyl with no fear of consequence have become a common sight in cities such as Eugene and Portland. Business owners and local leaders are upset, but so are liberal voters who hoped decriminalization would lead to more people getting help. In reality, few drug users are taking advantage of new state-funded rehabilitation programs.
Anybody could have seen this coming, but somehow, they still think they are smarter than the rest of us. In Econ 100, you learn that people respond to incentives. Remove disincentives to take hard drugs, and more people take hard drugs.
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