Why Everyone Should Read Harry Potter

September 9, 2014

Harry Potter is the best selling book series of all time. But it’s had its reproaches. Various Christian groups claimed the books promoted paganism and witchcraft to children. Washington Post book critic Ron Charles called the fact that adults were also hooked on Potter a "bad case of cultural infantilism.” Charles and others also cited a certain artistic banality in massively commercial story-telling, while others criticized Hogwarts, the wizardry academy attended by Potter, for only rewarding innate talents.

The Anglo-American writer Christopher Hitchens, on the other hand, praised J. K. Rowling for freeing English children’s literature from dreams of riches and class and snobbery and giving us a world of youthful democracy and diversity. A growing body of evidence suggests that reading Rowling’s work, at least as a youth, might be a good thing.

TEXTO:

Like many a diet before it, the Paleo diet relies on a
set of rules claiming to be based on science. People
swear by it and in theory it makes sense, but is it actually
practical?
[5] Paleo harkens back to the days of a different time;
the caveman era. The diet lays out an eating plan that
mimics the way our ancestors ate hundreds of years
ago. The idea is that modern day diseases like obesity,
diabetes, and heart disease are all the result of
[10] processed foods. Things like grains, dairy, legumes, salt,
and sugar which have entered our diets thanks to the
agrarian revolution are all eliminated from the diet. What’s
left? Meat, fish, and veggies. Think of it as retro dieting.
This all sounds sensical and smart, but it also
[15] throws out foods that do have real nutritional value.
Calcium, vitamin D, magnesium, and phosphorous in
dairy, and fiber, antioxidants, and B vitamins in grains. In
addition, legumes are a fantastic source of protein and
fiber that also happens to be low fat. The nutrients in
[20] these forbidden foods can lower cholesterol and blood
pressure as well as reduce risk of heart disease and
osteoporosis.
If you have weight problems to begin with and you’re
used to eating lots of processed fatty food, any diet is
[25] likely to help you lose weight Paleo included. Which is a
good thing since obesity is becoming a major epidemic.
The problem with Paleo is that it eliminates things
that are healthy like low fat yogurt, for example. It also
neglects to address portion control, a key element in
[30] losing weight. There’s also no mention of saturated fat
which is a major artery clogger. It would be easy to cut
out grains and just fill up on meats with no concern for
your heart.
Last but not least, the diet forgets one major thing;
[35] we’re human! In the Paleo diet, there’s no room for
cupcakes or fettuccine Alfredo or peanut butter and jelly?
Enjoying delicious food and savoring it is one of life’s
pleasures. In fact, its one of your senses. Sure one may
need to lose weight, but it’s also important to maintain

[40] balance. So go ahead and cut out unhealthy foods. Just

don’t forget to eat that cookie every once in a while.

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Beware of Parasites in raw/undercooked fish, warn doctors

An unseen hazard of eating raw or undercooked fish/seafood is on the rise in Western countries, where dishes, such as sushi, are becoming increasingly popular, warn doctors in BMJ Case Reports.

The warning comes after they treated a 32 year old previously well man who had had severe upper gut (epigastric) pain, vomiting, and fever for a week.

A blood test indicated mild inflammation, and the area below his ribs was tender. But it was only when the man revealed that he had recently eaten sushi that the doctors suspected that he might have anisakiasis.

Anisakiasis is caused by eating raw or undercooked fish/seafood infected with nematode parasites of the species Anisakis.

Endoscopy - the insertion of a long tube with a camera on the end down the gullet and into the stomach - revealed the larva of a worm-like parasite firmly attached to an area of swollen and inflamed gut lining.

After the larva was removed with a special kind of net, the man's symptoms cleared up straight away. Laboratory analysis showed that the larva belonged to the species of Anisakis.
Most of the reported cases to date have been in Japan, where a raw fish diet is very common say the authors.

"However, it has been increasingly recognised in Western countries," they add, and advise clinicians to consider the condition in patients with pain, nausea, vomiting and other complications, such as bowel obstruction and bleeding, who have recently eaten raw or undercooked fish.

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ACUPUNCTURE

Acupuncture is an important component of Traditional Oriental Medicine (TOM) that involves the insertion of thin needles at specific points (acupoints), which are primarily located along meridians. The TOM theory of acupuncture is based in part on the premise that there are patterns of energy flow composed of Qi (pronounced Chee) throughout the body. This energy flow is required for good health; blockages in Qi lead to pain and ill health. (All traditional oriental medicine practices are focused on improving the flow and balance of Qi.) Thus, according to TOM practitioners, the use of acupuncture stimulates certain points in the energy channels, restoring (or maintaining) a healthy flow and balance. TOM practitioners use acupuncture to treat and prevent a range of conditions and illnesses, even colds and flu. In the U.S., one of its most common uses is to relieve pain, but it is also used for a host of other conditions ranging from ear, nose and throat disease to neurological and respiratory problems and even depression. Acupuncture may be the only intervention used, or it may be used in conjunction with other Oriental therapies such as herbs, or with more conventional therapies. Widely practiced around the world, especially in Asia (the practice originated in China) andEurope, acupuncture didn’t gain a notable following in the U.S. until the 1970s, after President Richard Nixon’s visit to the People’s Republic of China. James Reston, a member of the press corps accompanying Nixon, also piqued public interest when he wrote about how physicians in Beijing eased his postsurgery abdominal pain with needles. Acupuncture has been gaining popularity in the U.S. ever since. The World Health Organization (WHO), using different criteria, has recognized acupuncture as an appropriate treatment for more than 40 conditions, including certain digestive, respiratory, neurological, muscular, urinary, menstrual and reproductive disorders.

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How diversity makes us smarter

Decades of research by organizational scientists, psychologists, sociologists, economists and demographers show that socially diverse groups (that is, those with a diversity of race, ethnicity, gender and sexual orientation) are more innovative than homogeneous groups. It means being around people who are different from us makes us more creative, more diligent and more hardworking.

It seems obvious that a group of people with diverse individual expertise would be better than a homogeneous group at solving complex, non-routine problems. It is less obvious that social diversity should work in the same way – yet the science shows that it does. This is not only because people with different backgrounds bring new information. Simply interacting with individuals who are different forces group members to prepare better, to anticipate alternative viewpoints and to expect that reaching consensus will take effort.

Diversity of expertise confers benefits that are obvious – you would not think of building a new car without engineers, designers and quality-control experts – but what about social diversity? The same logic applies to social diversity. People who are different from one another in race, gender and other dimensions bring unique information and experiences to bear on the task at hand. A male and a female engineer might have perspectives as different from one another as an engineer and a physicist – and that is a good thing.

The fact is that if you want to build teams or organizations capable of innovating, you need diversity. Diversity enhances creativity. It encourages the search for novel information and perspectives, leading to better decision making and problem solving. Diversity can improve the bottom line of companies and lead to discoveries and breakthrough innovations. Even simply being exposed to diversity can change the way you think.

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New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York metropolitan area, the premier gateway for legal immigration to the United States and one of the most populous urban agglomerations in the world. The city is referred to as New York City or the City of New York to distinguish it from the State of New York, of which it is a part. It has also been called by many nicknames such as the “City that Never Sleeps” and the “Center of the Universe.” But the Big Apple is the most famous nickname.

New York traces its roots back to 1624 when it was founded as a trading post by colonists of the Dutch Republic. It was named New Amsterdam in 1626. The city and its surroundings came under English control in 1664. New York served as the capital of the United States from 1785 until 1790. It has been the country's largest city since 1790.

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A resurgence of deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon

The Brazilian Amazon is the size of Western Europe, and in the 41 years I have lived in the region and worked on problems of deforestation, an area larger than France has been cleared. Over the decades, I have watched as economic cycles, swings in commodity prices, and land speculation have led to peaks and valleys in the clearing of the Amazon, with 1995 setting a record for destruction: 11,200 square miles — an area the size of Belgium — fell to loggers, cattle ranchers, and farmers.

When the annual deforestation rate in Brazil’s Amazon plunged from nearly 11,000 square miles in 2004 to 1,700 square miles in 2012 — an 84 percent decline — I was of course relieved. But I had witnessed too much destruction in the Amazon to celebrate. Unfortunately, these widely publicized declines led not only to the impression among the international conservation community that Amazon deforestation was finally ebbing. It also led to a dangerous illusion taking hold in the capital of Brasília — the belief that deforestation was thoroughly under control, and thus the government could build roads, dams, and other infrastructure at will in Amazonia, without consequences for the world’s largest rain forest.

Clearly, that turned out not to be the case. Deforestation has trended upwards since 2012, with a sharp 29 percent increase in the rate of clearing in 2016.