Photo courtesy YouTube Paris Mayor Swims In Seine As River Is Cleaned Up Just In Time For Olympics by Kim Willsher, The Guardian It has been the dream and promise of Paris mayors for decades and a nightmare for Olympic organisers: could the Seine be cleaned up enough to swim in and hold triathlon and other events? For the last 100 years and up until a few days ago, the answer seemed to be no. On Wednesday, however, the city’s mayor, Anne Hidalgo, kept her promise that it would be and she would be one of the first in. To cheers and applause, she led a group of about 100 officials, athletes a ..read more

Monster Soup Commonly Called Thames Water, 1828 colored etching by William Heath, shows a horrified woman discovering the monstrous content of a magnified drop of Thames water. Wikipedia CC. Strange as it may seem, early germ theorists could tell us a lot about today’s attitudes toward climate change. While researching for a new book about the history of emerging infections, I found many similarities between early debates over the existence of microbes and current debates over the existence of global warming. Both controversies reveal the struggles of perceiving an unseen threat. Both ..read more

Artwork©FriedbertFischer/123rf Ancient Taoist masters held that every hair extends from the skin like an antenna that can receive and transmit chi. They, therefore, placed great importance on hair vitality and strength. Longer and healthier hair allows for a better transmission of chi, while short, dry, brittle hair may not transmit as well. Hair is one of the most noticeable characteristics of sexual attraction, beauty, confidence, and self-worth. Hair reflects social status, personal beliefs, and the state of one’s health and hygiene. Thick, lustrous, healthy hair attracts attention and f ..read more

Photo courtesy Acroterion, CC. The 3M headquarters in Maplewood, Minnesota, USA This story was originally published by ProPublica in partnership with The New Yorker. Kris Hansen had worked as a chemist at the 3M Corporation for about a year when her boss, an affable senior scientist named Jim Johnson, gave her a strange assignment. 3M had invented Scotch Tape and Post-­it notes; it sold everything from sandpaper to kitchen sponges. But on this day, in 1997, Johnson wanted Hansen to test human blood for chemical contamination. Several of 3M’s most successful products contai ..read more

Artwork©prochkailo/123rf When Radha Paudel was 7 years old, she started noticing something strange: Every few weeks, her mother had separate plates to eat off, separate clothes to wear, and a separate place to sleep. She wasn’t allowed to enter the kitchen and couldn’t participate in any social, religious, or cultural activities. The little girl approached her mother, who told her that she was menstruating. She said menstrual blood was dirty, and that menstruation was a curse from God. Paudel was so traumatized by witnessing these restrictive monthly practices that she begged God to turn he ..read more

Photo©alfazetchronicles/123rf If you’ve ever undergone a home renovation, you know it feels like diving into a deep rabbit hole. I began my journey by exploring energy efficiency. Sustainability has been one of my priorities for a long time, so this was a natural progression. I quickly realized entire organizations and labels are dedicated to advising homeowners on how to be greener. The Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) is one of them. It is one of the most reputable and critically acclaimed frameworks in the field. Little did I know it would also boost my indoor air qua ..read more

Photo©Joseph Rothstein Procrastination is such an easy way to hide our light. What we put off and avoid is normally what will make us feel best. Whether it is the mountain of work that we have to finish in order to take a deep breath or the dream that never unfolds, the decision to let ourselves live daily with something to weigh us down is a choice complicit with hiding. In life, it is so easy to choose not to feel good. Unmet longings and hidden dreams create a safety net for our insecurities. My musings today are based on observing the unnatural world of monoculture farming that enlivens ..read more

Photo courtesy Paul Sableman/Flickr Bloomberg Gives $1 Billion To Hopkins To Make Tuition Free For Most Medical Students by Ayana Archie, NPR Most students pursuing medical degrees at Johns Hopkins University will receive free tuition, thanks to a $1 billion gift from businessman Michael Bloomberg’s philanthropic organization. Starting in the fall semester, students who come from households earning less than $300,000 will have their tuition paid for, while students whose households bring in less than $175,000 will have their tuition, fees and living expenses paid for, the university an ..read more

Photo©tonobalaguer/123rf This summer, trade Fortnite and TikTok for real-life fun. Many of us have fond memories of our own childhood summers: building forts in the woods, playing pick-up games of Wiffle ball, and biking around the neighborhood until it got dark. But for many kids today, this isn’t what summer looks like. For many kids, summer is an indoor, solitary time, filled with online tutoring, virtual camps, tablet time, and, of course, video games. While this may feel normal in today’s world, it isn’t healthy. Our kids need more time outside and more time with fr ..read more

Photo©SeanPrior/123rf We want the world to make sense to us. We would like it to be fair and just. We want those we perceive as violators of norms and laws to be punished, and those we perceive as good, rewarded. We are unbalanced by the impersonality of the Universe, which makes it nearly impossible for us to consistently remember that it is not organized for the exclusive benefit of humans, and particularly not for ourselves. Often, we can manifest very little control over issues we perceive as problematic or immoral. We can and should stand up (or as Buddhists we often sit zazen at prote ..read more