NPR’s Tamara Keith and Amy Walter of the Cook Political Report join Amna Nawaz to discuss the latest political news, including Pete Buttigieg’s surge in Iowa, former Vice President Joe Biden’s lead in South Carolina polls, Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s health care plan update and what another Democratic gubernatorial upset in Louisiana means for President Trump in 2020.
Yearly Archives: 2019
Health Studies: NSAIDs (Nonsteroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs) Increase Heart Failure Risk For Arthritis Patients
From a Harvard Medical School release:
Researchers matched 7,743 people with osteoarthritis with 23,229 healthy people who rarely or never took NSAIDs. People with osteoarthritis had a 42% higher risk of heart failure and a 17% higher risk of coronary artery disease compared with healthy people. After controlling for a range of factors that contribute to heart disease (including high body mass index, high blood pressure, and diabetes), they concluded that 41% of the increased risk of heart disease related to osteoarthritis was due to the use of NSAIDs.
To manage the painful joint disease known as osteoarthritis, people often take ibuprofen (Advil, Motrin) and naproxen (Aleve, Anaprox). But these and related drugs — known as NSAIDs — may account for the higher rates of heart disease seen in people with osteoarthritis, a new study suggests.
To read more: https://www.health.harvard.edu/heart-health/pain-relievers-a-cause-of-higher-heart-risk-among-people-with-arthritis
Art Of Food: 99-Year Old Painter Wayne Thiebaud Creates Thanksgiving Cover For New Yorker
From New Yorker article:
Since all of my paintings—almost every single one except for the figure paintings—are done from memory, I rely specifically on the memory of working in restaurants, or of visiting farms on which I worked as a young person. I try to recall the look and feel and love of what I have experienced.
At ninety-nine, Wayne Thiebaud—one of America’s greatest painters, and certainly its premier painter of food—is still going strong. This is Thiebaud’s ninth cover for the magazine, and it riffs on one of his previous paintings, an image of a turkey that he started in 2009. A sharp viewer might pick out the added details and embellishments, but more striking, perhaps, are the Thiebaud hallmarks that remain the same: soft light, clear color, a blue shadow pooling around a plate. We recently called Thiebaud at his home, in Sacramento, to talk about his work.
To read more: https://www.newyorker.com/culture/cover-story/cover-story-2019-11-25
Classic Modern Brands: “London Sock Company” Offers “Dizzying Choice” Of Sartorial Style
From a Country Life UK online article:
Having established our Simply Sartorial collection that offers a rainbow of strong, confident colours – and which remains our best seller – we have taken a playful approach to patterns and textures. We have added jacquards, herringbones, merinos and cashmeres to the range.
Our view is that it’s the small things that make a big difference; we firmly believe that buying online can also be a luxurious experience, so we maintain the same approach to every aspect of what we do, from customer service to packaging in which your socks arrive.
The London Sock Company was built on a belief that good socks can inspire confidence. Seriously. At LSC, we believe that pulling on a great pair of socks in the morning has the power to transform not just your style, but your state of mind. Our founders created this brand in 2013 to help modern gents embrace their personality and be inspired to be the best version of themselves.
https://www.londonsockcompany.com/about/
Read more at: https://www.countrylife.co.uk/promoted/transformative-power-really-beautiful-pair-socks-207802#1M3tUaxwKFrgHOXH.99
Retail Trends: Patagonia Opens Up “Worn Wear” Pop-Up Store In Colorado
From a RetailDive.com online release:
In addition to the pop-up Worn Wear store, Patagonia also has Worn Wear mobile repair stations, which visit a variety of locations, including Patagonia stores, specialty retailers, ski resorts and colleges to offer up their refurbishment capabilities. The mobile stations have been to over 135 locations so far, according to the release, and will fix products from any brand.
Patagonia on Thursday opened its first ever physical store for Worn Wear, Patagonia’s resale business. The store is a pop-up in Boulder, Colorado, which will stay open until February 2020, according to a press release emailed to Retail Dive.
The pop-up will be stocked with only Worn Wear products, as well as the outdoor retailer’s ReCrafted Collection, which sells clothes made from apparel that was beyond repair. In addition to selling used gear, the pop-up shop will host repair and upcycling workshops.
To read more: https://www.retaildive.com/news/patagonia-opens-first-worn-wear-store/567533/
Future Of Homebuilding: “Cork House” By Matthew Barnett Howland (2019)
From Architect Matthew Barnett Howland website:
Cork House embodies a strong whole life approach to sustainability, from resource through to end-of-life. Expanded cork is a pure bio-material made with waste from cork forestry. The bark of the cork oak is harvested by hand every nine years without harming the tree or disturbing the forest. 
This gentle agro-industry sustains the Mediterranean cork oak landscapes, providing a rich biodiverse habitat that is widely recognised. This compelling ecological origin of expanded cork is mirrored at the opposite end of the building’s lifecycle. The construction system is dry-jointed, so that all 1,268 blocks of cork can be reclaimed at end-of-building-life for re-use, recycling, or returning to the biosphere.
Completed in 2019, Cork House was designed by Matthew Barnett Howland with Dido Milne and Oliver Wilton.
Cork House is a brand new and radically simple form of plant-based construction. Monolithic walls and corbelled roofs are made almost entirely from solid load-bearing cork. This highly innovative self-build construction kit is designed for disassembly, is carbon-negative at completion and has exceptionally low whole life carbon.
To read more: https://www.matthewbarnetthowland.com/
Health Studies: Reduced Mental Alertness (“Brain Fog”) Is Caused By Inflammation In The Body
From a Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News release:
“These results show quite clearly that there’s a very specific part of the brain network that’s affected by inflammation,” noted Mazaheri. “This could explain ‘brain fog’.”
Raymond added that “this research finding is a major step forward in understanding the links between physical, cognitive, and mental health and tells us that even the mildest of illnesses may reduce alertness.”
Researchers at the University of Birmingham’s Centre for Human Brain Health in collaboration with the University of Amsterdam say they have uncovered a possible explanation for the mental sluggishness that often accompanies illness. The team investigated the link between “mental fog” and inflammation, the body’s response to illness. In a study (“Selective effects of acute low-grade inflammation on human visual attention”) published in Neuroimage, they showed that inflammation appears to have a particularly negative impact on the brain’s readiness to reach and maintain an alert state.
Top Hikes: “San Francisco Crosstown Trail” – Candlestick Point To Lands End (17 Miles)
The Crosstown Trail is a route connecting San Francisco neighborhoods, open spaces, and other major trails. It runs from Candlestick Point in the southeast corner of the city to Lands End in the northwest corner. The route is usable by both pedestrians and bicyclists, and it connects many parks, business districts, residential areas, and public transit.
The Crosstown Trail is just one part of the city’s Green Connections Plan. It is one of the first to be concretely mapped and made available to the public.
Read New York Times article on the hike: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/18/travel/crosstown-trail-san-francisco.html
Website: https://crosstowntrail.org/
New Travel/Photography Books: “Remote Places To Stay” By Debbie Pappyn
From a Yatzer.com online review:
The visuals make up most of the book’s volume, with David De Vleeschauwer’s photography magically working on various levels: on the one hand, artfully conveying the splendour and beauty of all the featured remote landscapes, and on the other, focusing on minute details that we usually pay no attention to: such details are isolated and enlarged as if to make us stop and look for a while. Each location is also paired with a hotel or guesthouse review, together with snippets of information about the area and how to actually get there. 
Above all, ‘Remote Places to Stay’ is all about humans and the sheer variety of lifestyles that are possible, as through its evocative photography and well-written texts, we are able to uncover small, hidden corners of the world where life flows in a different tempo altogether.
“In an age of acceleration, nothing is so cherished as slowness,” writes essayist and novelist Pico Iyer in his reflective preface for the book Remote Places to Stay — an exceptional hardcover featuring 22 of the world’s remotest travel destinations. The book is the brainchild of Debbie Pappyn and David De Vleeschauwer, a pair of devoted travellers that is also behind the popular travel blog Classe Touriste.
To read more: https://www.yatzer.com/remote-places-stay
Top New Gallery Exhibits: “Annie Lapin – Strange Little Beast” At The Shulamit Nazarian (LA)
From a Shulamit Nazarian online review:
The artist incorporates an array of art historical scenes such as John Martin’s English-Romantic apocalypses and Edouard Manet’s Luncheon on the Grass with ubiquitous imagery sourced from the Internet. The highly rendered areas in her paintings resemble a cascade of Google image search results where cellphone photos of skylines and gardens slide past gestural marks.
Shulamit Nazarian is pleased to present Strange Little Beast, a solo exhibition of new works by Los Angeles-based painter Annie Lapin. This will be the artist’s first solo exhibition with the gallery.
Annie Lapin’s paintings call attention to the human desire for meaning making–our effort to create order out of chaos. In Strange Little Beast, Lapin’s paintings use her interest in art history, perception, and the materiality of painting itself to examine the role of digital technology and narrative building in our contemporary moment.
To read more: http://www.shulamitnazarian.com/exhibition/annie-lapin/#
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