random bits from the news

[cellio]

An article in my local dead-tree news reported on something I'd been wondering about for a while: are allergies and asthma more prevalent than they used to be (versus just being diagnosed more), and, if so, is it because of lifestyle changes? Yes and yes, apparently; research shows that more sterile environments mean our immune systems don't have as much to do, so they go off and find other ways to keep busy. (I couldn't find the local article online; Google found me this one from half a year ago.) I'm glad my parents let me play in the great outdoors and eat anything, and that we had pets, when I was growing up; I do have some allergies (environmental, not food), but they're mild. I feel sorry for one of my in-laws: his parents are hyper-paranoid about food allergies and are attempting to build a shield around him. They didn't come to our wedding because we couldn't guarantee that none of a long list of foods had never passed through the hall's kitchen. That kid is going to be a mess when he grows up, and he's probably going to think this is normal when he has kids of his own. Ugh.

Via Slashdot: daylight "saving" time actually increases energy usage. ("Saving" is a misnomer; we should call it "daylight shifting time", which is all it accomplishes. There are not, after all, storehouses in which we collect excess sunlight for use during lean times; nothing is saved.) The researchers were handed a great data-collection opportunity: they did their work in Indiana, where until recently some counties did DST and others did not. So they not only had before-and-after data, but also a control group nearby to factor out weather and the like.

A few days ago a house in Plum (near Pittsburgh) exploded, apparently from a gas leak. (I actually saw this on national news before I saw the local news.) This made me wonder whether it's possible to build a detector (other than the human nose) for household use. We have smoke detectors and carbon-monoxide detectors; why have I never heard of a gas-buildup detector? Granted that such incidents are extremely rare, but they are potentially much more devastating than fires and CO buildup, so if an inexpensive household gadget could provide some potential warning, that'd be great.

In lighter news:

You know that "who do you want to answer the phone at 3AM?" ad the Clinton campaign is running? The little girl in the ad was stock footage; she's now an adult and working on the Obama campaign (via insomnia).

Headline of the day, from thnidu: Skywalkers in Korea Cross Han Solo.

Comments

[alaricmacconnal.livejournal.com]

Related to this is the prevalence of anti-bacterial soap. I remember when they first came out and it became almost impossible to find "regular" soap.

Like you, we played outside, interacted with lots of other kids and had the opportunity to sample all kinds of things :). I think my immune system is pretty good :)

[dglenn.livejournal.com]

In many cases the switch to anti-bacterial soap was a labelling change, not a formulation change. (That is, several brands were found to be anti-bacterial already or contain as a manufacturing side-effect the ingredient that would have been added.)