All posts by She Seeks Serene

My Journey of Reimagining Life, Love and Education

Shopping: Largest Online Secondhand Clothing Retailer “Thredup” Wins “Disruptor Of The Year”

From a RetailDive.com online article:

Retail Dive Awards 2019ThredUp, which sells brands ranging from American Eagle Outfitters to Burberry, may prove to be a beneficial partner to many retailers. A separate report from Accenture Strategy and Fashion For Good found that recommerce operating margin for the luxury, premium and mid-market sectors was 39%, 28% and 22%, respectively.

https://www.thredup.com/

This year could be considered the year the circular economy really took hold, particularly the resale space, and a major force leading the charge was e-commerce ThredUP logoplatform ThredUp.

Resale grew 21 times faster than the apparel market over the past three years, by ThredUp’s own measures. The resale platform also projects the market to grow from $24 billion to $51 billion by 2023.

To read more: https://www.retaildive.com/news/disruptor-thredup-dive-awards/566185/

Remodels: 90-Year Old Taiwan Home Wins “2019 World Interior Of The Year” (WAF Amsterdam)

From an InsideFestival.com online release:

World Festival of Interiors Amsterdam 2019“The jury was unanimous in celebrating this inventive solution to reconfiguring a dilapidated Japanese colonial house.

A dynamic whole in constant flux, the house in unusually in tune with the differing and sometimes contradictory needs of a young family. Every space can be negotiated and adapted, encouraging the house to be an incubator for positive difference in the family unit.

World Festival of Interiors Amsterdam Taiwan Home 2019

Sensitivity abounds, both in the design process and the outcome. Local craftspeople were drafted in when needed; recycled elements were mixed freely with new. The result has a uniquely sloppy fit for its inhabitants, a fit that can evolve freely over time.

Ladders to the roof level encourage ongoing hide and seek. Internal space leaks into a garden, itself an outdoor room. Light penetrates in unexpected ways, and occasional views of the sky offset the otherwise congested urban setting.

Against the background of rapid development in Taipei, this project has the potential to be a ‘prototype’ that may help reevaluate the existing stock of Japanese houses.”

Website: https://www.insidefestival.com/interior-of-the-year-2019

2020 Election: Political Advertising Abuse To Continue As Federal Election Commission (FEC) Lacks Quorum (Podcast)

Federal Election Commission FEC logoPolitical advertising is flourishing online, but federal guidelines regulating those ads are virtually absent. WSJ’s Emily Glazer explains why Facebook, Twitter and Google are making their own rules.

WSJ Podcasts

Health Studies: Aspirin Use 3+ Times Per Week Reduces “All-Cause” Cancers In Older Adults (JAMA)

From a JAMA Open Network online release:

JAMAThis cohort study included 146 152 individuals from the Prostate, Lung, Colorectal, and Ovarian Cancer Screening Trial and found that aspirin use 3 or more times per week was associated with reduced risk of all-cause, cancer, gastrointestinal cancer, and colorectal cancer mortality.

Importance  Aspirin use has been associated with reduced risk of cancer mortality, particularly of the colorectum. However, aspirin efficacy may be influenced by biological characteristics, such as obesity and age. With the increasing prevalence of obesity and conflicting data regarding the effect of aspirin in older adults, understanding the potential association of aspirin use with cancer mortality according to body mass index (BMI) and age is imperative.

Objectives  To investigate the association of aspirin use with risk of all-cause, any cancer, gastrointestinal (GI) cancer, and colorectal cancer (CRC) mortality among older adults and to perform an exploratory analysis of the association of aspirin use with mortality stratified by BMI.

Design, Setting, Participants  This cohort study evaluated aspirin use among participants aged 65 years and older in the Prostate, Lung, Colorectal, and Ovarian (PLCO) Cancer Screening Trial at baseline (November 8, 1993, to July 2, 2001) and follow-up (2006-2008). Analysis began in late 2018 and was completed in September 2019.

To read more: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2756258

Artist Profiles: Film Director Mike Nichols (1931-2014) Profiled In New Book (NY Times Podcast)

Mike Nichols Life Isn't Everything Ash Carter and Sam KashnerMike Nichols, who died in 2014, was a film and stage director of genius, and he wasted no time in showing it. The first two films he directed were “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” and “The Graduate.” In the new oral history “Life Isn’t Everything,” Ash Carter and Sam Kashner draw on 150 respondents to tell the story of his incredible career.

The New York Times Book Review

Website: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/06/books/review/podcast-life-isnt-everything-mike-nichols-still-here-elaine-stritch-alexandra-jacobs.html

Classic Car Nostalgia: “1968 Triumph TR6” – 1st Year (Classic Driver)

From a Classic Driver online listing:

1968 Triumph TR6 Classic Driver

Offered as an affordable, six-cylinder sports car, the first Triumph TR6 rolled off the production line in 1968 as a 1969 model. It’s intended target was to rival similar sports cars at the time, and although most were designed with sleek, curved lines, the TR6 was squared off at both ends, making it stand out from it’s competitors. With just a seven year production span, the TR6 grew to become a true British classic.

The Triumph TR6 was offered as a convertible only, with a factory steel hard top available optionally.

Triumph produced a range of TR models, from the TR1 right up to a limited run of the TR8, but it was the sixth car in the range that really stood out from a sales point of view. The TR5 enjoyed a very brief thirteen-month period of manufacture between 1967 and 1968. Less than 3,000 units were produced before the TR6 came in to improve on many of the specifications. Unlike its predecessors, the Triumph TR6 was more reliable mechanically, which means that there are many original models still on our roads.

Website: https://www.classicdriver.com/en/car/triumph/tr6/1968/723270

Healthcare Studies: High Level Of Depression Symptoms In Physicians Linked To Medical Errors

From a JAMA Network online release:

JAMAThis systematic review and meta-analysis of 11 studies involving 21 517 physicians demonstrated an association between physician depressive symptoms and an increased risk for perceived medical errors (RR, 1.95; 95% CI, 1.63-2.33). We also found that the magnitude of the associations of physician depressive symptoms and perceived medical errors were relatively consistent across studies that assessed training and practicing physicians, providing additional evidence that physician depression has implications for the quality of care delivered by physicians at different career stages.

Medical errors are a major source of patient harm. Studies estimate that, in the United States, as many as 98 000 to 251 000 hospitalized patients die each year as result of a preventable adverse event.14 In addition, medical errors are a major source of morbidity5 and account for billions of dollars in financial losses to health care systems every year.69

Depressive symptoms are highly prevalent among physicians,10,11 and several studies have investigated the associations between physician depressive symptoms and medical errors.1216 Although most studies on physician depressive symptoms and medical errors have identified a substantial association, their results are not unanimous, and questions regarding the direction of these associations remain open in recent literature.17

To read more: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2755851?utm_source=For_The_Media&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=ftm_links&utm_term=112719

Genetic Engineering: Harvard Scientist George Church Seeks To “Reverse Aging” (60 Minutes Video)

Our lives have been transformed by the information age. But what’s coming next is likely to be more profound, call it the genetic information age. We have mapped the human genome and in just the last few years we have learned to read and write DNA like software. And you’re about to see a few breakthroughs-in-waiting that would transform human health. For a preview of this revolution in evolution we met George Church, a world leading geneticist, whose own DNA harbors many eccentricities and a few genes for genius.

Website: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/harvard-geneticist-george-church-goal-to-protect-humans-from-viruses-genetic-diseases-and-aging-60-minutes-2019-12-08/

 

Top New Travel Videos: “Ladakh – Land Of The High Passes” (Indian Himalayas)

VINTAGE RIDES PRESENTS – A FILM BY NEOMORAL

PRODUCED BY: Josh Goraya & Jennifer Fontaine

EDITOR, COLORIST: Amit Mondal

SOUND DESIGN: Neomoral

Ladakh - Land Of The High Passes Travel Video by Neomoral 2019

The Himalayan terrain, beside the Great Indus, is infamous for its harsh and cold weather; oftentimes its landscapes are even unreachable to the common people. It’s a wonder really, what exactly transpires to make this place so fascinating.

Ladakh – The ‘Land of the High Passes’ – is among the most stunning parts of the Indian Himalayas. Widely known as the cold desert, it holds within itself beauty that is pristine and glorious. Stretching from peak to peak, it is an exquisite canvas of surreal art done with celestial strokes of red, ochre and purple rocks, made over thousands of years into shapes so unexpected and so phenomenal, the eye can hardly believe.

An icon of heavenly beauty, the scenery makes people either speechless or wholly expressive. Everyone gets stunned and nobody can remain indifferent.

Ladakh induces in all, a permanent high. A rush so unhinged, you struggle to find the adjectives to talk of the imprint it leaves on you.

Website: WWW.NEOMORAL.COM

Aging: 78-Year Old Author Paul Theroux Traveled To Mexico To “Feel Young”

From a BBC Travel online article:

Paul TherouxI think of myself in the Mexican way, not as an old man but as most Mexicans regard a senior, an hombre de juicio, a man of judgment; not ruco, worn out, beneath notice, someone to be patronised, but owed the respect traditionally accorded to an elder, someone (in the Mexican euphemism) of La Tercera Edad, the Third Age, who might be called Don Pablo or tío (uncle) in deference. Mexican youths are required by custom to surrender their seat to anyone older. They know the saying: Más sabe el diablo por viejo, que por diablo – The devil is wise because he’s old, not because he’s the devil.Paul Theroux's On The Plain of Snakes A Mexican Journey

But “Stand aside, old man, and make way for the young” is the American way.

I was that old gringo. I was driving south in my own car in Mexican sunshine along the straight sloping road through the thinly populated valleys of the Sierra Madre Oriental – the whole craggy spine of Mexico is mountainous. Valleys, spacious and austere, were forested with thousands of single yucca trees, the so-called dragon yucca (Yucca filifera) that Mexicans call palma china. I pulled off the road to look closely at them and wrote in my notebook: I cannot explain why, on the empty miles of these roads, I feel young.

To read more: http://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20191203-is-travel-the-secret-to-a-long-life