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ScienceAlert: Daycares in Finland Grew Forests, And It Changed Kids' Immune Systems
Playing through the greenery and litter of a mini forest’s undergrowth for just one month may be enough to change a child’s immune system, according to an experiment in Finland.
When daycare workers rolled out a lawn, planted forest undergrowth (such as dwarf heather and blueberries), and allowed children to care for crops in planter boxes, the diversity of microbes in the guts and on the skin of the young kids appeared healthier in a very short space of time.
Compared to other city kids who play in standard urban daycares with yards of pavement, tile, and gravel, 3-, 4-, and 5-year-olds at these greened-up daycare centers in Finland showed increased T-cells and other important immune markers in their blood within 28 days.
I wonder if gardening would have a similar effect?
Guardian: Adverts for UK bookmakers and online casinos ‘need smoking-style warnings’
Adverts for bookmakers and online casinos should carry smoking-style warnings, the UK’s leading gambling charity has said, as it warned that a marketing surge during the Euro 2024 football tournament could make it harder for people to cut down or quit.
GambleAware called for an end to the industry-approved “Take Time To Think” slogan, which appears on gambling adverts, labelling the message “inadequate”.
Instead, the charity has drawn up its own guidelines spurred by research suggesting that wall-to-wall betting adverts, which typically increase significantly during major football tournaments, make it harder for people with a gambling problem to stop.
Guardian: EU expected to impose import tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles
Experts believe Beijing will retaliate with measures that could hit European exports from cheese to cognac.
Guardian: UK unemployment rising at fastest pace of OECD countries, analysis shows
Every region of the UK was affected by rising unemployment and a falling number of job vacancies, the TUC said, illustrating the dislocation in the labour market between employers who cannot find workers with the right skills and rising joblessness.
Figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) to be published on Tuesday are expected to show a further rise in unemployment in recent months in a blow to Rishi Sunak’s message that the economy is growing robustly.
9to5Mac: watchOS 11 will reportedly drop support for these Apple Watch models
Apple has some big changes in store for Apple Watch device compatibility this year. According to a new report today, watchOS 11 will drop support for the Apple Watch Series 4, Apple Watch Series 5, and the original Apple Watch SE.
The rumor was shared on Twitter by a private account with an accurate track record predicting device compatibility for iOS, iPadOS, watchOS, and macOS software updates.
The Apple Watch Series 4 was first released in 2018, followed by the Apple Watch Series 5 in 2019. The first-generation Apple Watch SE was released in 2020.
9to5Mac: Apple Vision Pro goes on sale in eight new countries in the next few weeks
Apple today announced that the Apple Vision Pro headset will be expanding beyond the US for the first time. The headset will go on sale in eight additional countries, in two batches.
Firstly, on June 28, Apple Vision Pro will be available in China, Japan and Singapore. On July 12, Apple Vision Pro will also launch in Australia, Canada, France, Germany and the United Kingdom.
MacRumors: iMessage on iOS 18: Bold, Underline, Italics, Emoji Tapbacks, and More
iMessage is finally getting bold, italics, underline, and strikeout options, along with all-new text effects that allow you to animate individual words in a message.
Best announcement of the day.
Scientific American: Why Are Bears ‘Friend-Shaped’?
There’s a meme about bears floating around the Internet: “If not friend, why friend-shaped?”
This is an intriguing question if you decide to take it seriously. Most deadly apex predators have a certain ferocity to them that doesn’t scream “friend”—think lions, wolves and crocodiles. So why do bears seem so cute and cuddly? Have we just been conditioned by teddy bears and Paddington to find them safe and comforting, or is there something else going on? It turns out that evolution and human psychology might help us understand their friend-shaped nature.
via Kottke
Scientific American: New ‘FLiRT’ COVID Variants Could Be Driving an Uptick in Cases. Here’s How to Avoid Them
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s wastewater surveillance program currently reports low levels of viral activity–a combined measurement of the presence of the COVID-causing virus SARS-CoV-2 in samples from sewage collection sites nationwide. (A higher measurement at a wastewater site can suggest a potential increased risk of infection in the community, which would be reflected in clinical cases approximately four to six days later.) But that may be changing: national levels reported on May 25 increased approximately 7 percent from the previous week’s data collection period. Meanwhile WastewaterSCAN, a separate wastewater dataset that is monitored by researchers at Stanford University and Emory University, indicates that SARS-CoV-2 levels have been high and continuing to rise in the past 21 days. Some states, particularly in the West, have been reporting even greater increases in COVID wastewater concentrations. California has been seeing levels creep up since early May.
Meanwhile in Ontario, Premier and Science Skeptic in Chief Doug Ford has cancelled waste water screenings. 🤷🏻♂️
The Hill: Martha-Ann Alito vows revenge for flag controversy in secret recording
The wife of Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito said that she wants to get back at people who raised a controversy after she and the justice were criticized last month for flying politically affiliated flags at their homes.
“You come after me, I’m gonna give it back to you,” Martha-Ann Alito said in the recording of a private conversation at the Supreme Court Historical Society’s annual dinner on June 3.
“There will be a way, it doesn’t have to be now, but there will be a way they know,” she added. “Don’t worry about it.”
Hewing to Christian principles, of course.
MacRumors: HomeKit in iOS 18 Includes Guest Access, Hands-Free Unlock, Electricity Usage Integration and More
Apple is adding electricity usage integration into the Home app, but it’s only available to select Pacific Gas and Electric Company customers in the United States to begin. With this feature, users can see their home electricity usage from the Home app, along with rate plan.
Electricity usage integration is coming later in 2024, and Apple also plans to add other providers in the future.
Last Updated: 10.Jun.2024 23:52 EDT
