Thursday, October 22, 2015

What's Liz looking at?

Looks to me like she's getting ready to steal something from President Xi's plate.

Friday, October 2, 2015

A very small rant.



The Washington Post recently ran a short news item about the health benefits of fidgeting. This subject always interests me because I am, or at least I was, a very fidgety person. The headline ("Fidgeting might be good for your health, new study suggests") didn't exactly match the conclusions of the study; that didn't surprise me -- news, especially online news, frequently has bait-and-switch headlines. What did surprise and irritate me a bit was that the quote from the co-lead author of the study makes absolutely no sense to me. Maybe one of my readers can explain it to me. Here's the quote:

"While further research is needed, the findings raise questions about whether the negative associations with fidgeting, such as rudeness or lack of concentration, should persist if such simple movements are beneficial for our health," study co-lead Janet Cade of the University of Leeds said in a statement

What? I get the part about "negative associations," and it's probably true that all these years while I've been fidgeting I've been distracted and, more important, I've been rude to anyone nearby (sorry). But what does "...raise questions about whether the negative associations...should persist if such simple movements are beneficial for our health" mean? Is Dr. Cade saying that if fidgeting leads to better health, and therefore longer life, it should also lead to reduced rudeness and better concentration? That's the best I can do. Opinions?

Oh, one more thing. The Post article links to the study and gets the name of the journal wrong. They call it the American Journal of Preventative Medicine while the real name is the American Journal of Preventive Medicine. I've long hated the word "preventative" and I always edit out that errant "ta."

I guess I'm done. I'm going to stand up now and go fidget since that seems to be the only exercise I get these days. Unless complaining counts as exercise.