“Dear Great Pumpkin, I am looking forward to your arrival on that Halloween night.” (Synonym)
An increasing body of evidence suggests that the time we spend on our smartphones is interfering with our sleep, self-esteem, relationships, memory, attention spans, creativity, productivity and problem-solving and decision-making skills. But there is another reason for us to rethink our relationships with our devices. By chronically raising levels of cortisol, the body’s main stress hormone, our phones may be threatening our health and shortening our lives.
If they happened only occasionally, phone-induced cortisol spikes might not matter. But the average American spends four hours a day staring at their smartphone and keeps it within arm’s reach nearly all the time, according to a tracking app called Moment.
“Your cortisol levels are elevated when your phone is in sight or nearby, or when you hear it or even think you hear it,” says David Greenfield, professor of clinical psychiatry at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine and founder of the Center for Internet and Technology Addiction. “It’s a stress response, and it feels unpleasant, and the body’s natural response is to want to check the phone to make the stress go away.”
But while doing so might soothe you for a second, it probably will make things worse in the long run. Any time you check your phone, you’re likely to find something else stressful waiting for you, leading to another spike in cortisol and another craving to check your phone to make your anxiety go away. This cycle, when continuously reinforced, leads to chronically elevated cortisol levels. And chronically elevated cortisol levels have been tied to an increased risk of serious health problems, including depression, obesity, metabolic syndrome, Type 2 diabetes, fertility issues, high blood pressure, heart attack, dementia and stroke.
(Catherine Price. www.nytimes.com, 24.04.2019. Adaptado.)
Cycling
What's the furthest you have ever cycled?
Perhaps you cycle to school or to work, or maybe at most a short cycling trip with friends? How would you feel about spending months on the road travelling solo from the UK to China, by bike?
For British cyclist Pete Jones, camping rough and cycling long distances through inhospitable terrain are second nature. Mr Jones is currently undertaking a mammoth trip across the Eurasian continent from Britain to China. Pete Jones is no stranger to China. But he says many people there are puzzled by his passion for cycling, asking why he would choose to cycle when he can afford a car. Indeed, while there are an estimated 400 million bicycles in China, where it has long been the preferred form of transport, rapid economic growth has fuelled an explosive expansion in car ownership.
Edward Genochio, another British cyclist who completed a 41,000km trip to China and back, said one of his aims was to "promote cycling as a safe, sustainable and environmentally benign means of getting about". In the UK, the last few years have seen a rise in the number of people choosing two wheels over four, with some estimates saying the number of people cycling to work has almost doubled in the last five years. Politicians also see cycling as a way to boost their eco-credentials, with people such as London mayor Boris Johnson often riding to work under his own steam. But we may have to wait some time before we see him emulating Pete Jones in attempting to cycle all the way to China!
Fonte: www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/...
Mozambique Cyclone: “Almost everything is destroyed.”
People carry their personal effects through a flooded section of Praia Nova in Beira after the cyclone. Tropical Cyclone Idai destroyed and damaged homes and knocked out electricity and communications.
Cyclone Idai hit the city of Beira hard and the scale of damage is massive, say Red Cross and Red Crescent aid workers who reached the Mozambican city a few days ago. The scale of devastation is enormous. It seems that 90 per cent of the area is completely destroyed.”
The Red Cross and Red Crescent team was among the first to arrive in Beira since Cyclone Idai made landfall March 14-15. With Beira’s airport closed and roads cut off due to flooding, the team drove from Maputo, the capital city, before taking a helicopter for the last leg of the journey. “Almost everything is destroyed. Communication lines have been completely cut and roads have
been destroyed. Some affected communities are not accessible,” said LeSueur. “Beira has been severely battered. But we are also hearing that the situation outside the city could be even worse. Yesterday, a large dam burst and cut off the last road to the city.”
While the physical impact of Idai is beginning to emerge, the human impact is still unclear. Authorities in the country are warning that the death toll may climb beyond 1,000 people.
Heavy rain will continue in the coming days which may only exacerbate the dire situation and cause already saturated rivers to overflow.
Following its landfall in Mozambique, the cyclone continued west to Zimbabwe as a tropical storm,
wreaking havoc in the eastern part of the country, with Manicaland Province being the hardest-hit.
At least 31 deaths have been reported and over 100 people are missing in Zimbabwe.
Source: www.redcross.org/about-us/news-and -events/news/2019/mozambique-cyclone.html