Skyline Happenings

by Christine M.E. Guth in the Harvard Magazine (thanks to Ann M.)

BENJAMIN SMITH Lyman was living proof of the benefits to health and well-being of the lifestyle he advocated in his Vegetarian Diet and Dishes, self-published in 1917, when he was 82 years old. A graduate of the Harvard class of 1855 that included scientist Alexander Agassiz, Phillips Brooks, Rector of Boston’s Trinity Church, and journalist and abolitionist Franklin Benjamin Sanborn, Lyman was an eminent mining geologist and published more than 150 articles on the topic. During his nine years as a mining engineer under contract to the Japanese government between 1872 and 1881, he also mastered that language. A linguistic rule involving the pronunciation of the initial consonant in compound words is still known as “Lyman’s Law.”

After becoming ill, possibly from poorly canned meats, while conducting a survey of mercury mines in California, Lyman became a vegetarian in 1864. His abstinence from meat was regarded as highly unusual at the time and shaped his work and relationships both at home and abroad: in India, where he carried out surveys in the Punjab for the British colonial government between 1869-70; in Northampton, Massachusetts, where he grew up and lived following his return from Japan; and in Philadelphia, the birthplace of American vegetarianism, where he lived from 1887 until his death in 1920. (continued)

by Heather Cox Richardson

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Feeling chronically disconnected from others can affect the brain’s structure and function, and it raises the risk for neurodegenerative diseases.

By Dana G. Smith in the NYT (Thanks to Joan H.)

Everyone feels lonely from time to time — after, say, a move to a new school or city, when a child leaves for college, or following the loss of a spouse.

Some people, though, experience loneliness not just transiently but chronically. It becomes “a personality trait, something that’s pretty sticky,” said Dr. Ellen Lee, an associate professor of psychiatry at the University of California, San Diego. These individuals seem to have “this persistent emotion that then shapes their behavior.”

Research is mounting that this type of entrenched loneliness is bad for our health and can even change our brains, raising the risk for neurodegenerative diseases. Here’s what experts know about how chronic loneliness affects the brain, and some strategies to address it.

How does loneliness change the brain?

Humans evolved to be social creatures probably because, for our ancient ancestors, being alone could be dangerous and reduce the odds of survival. Experts think loneliness may have emerged as a unique type of stress signal to prompt us to seek companionship.

With chronic loneliness, that stress response gets stuck and becomes disadvantageous — similar to the way in which anxiety can shift a helpful fear response to a maladaptive mental illness.

“Small, transient episodes of loneliness really motivate people to then seek out social connection,” said Anna Finley, a postdoctoral research fellow at the Institute on Aging at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “But in chronic episodes of loneliness, that seems to kind of backfire” because people become especially attuned to social threats or signals of exclusion, which can then make it scary or unpleasant for them to interact with others. (continued)

By Suzanne Nuyen on NPY – Thanks to Pam P.

Thanks to Pam P.

Thanks to Mary M.

Thanks to Pam P.

The beauty of the Seattle University Campus offers the delight of rhodys in full bloom today. Also on campus are the wildlife sanctuary and themed gardens which can be found here – https://www.seattleu.edu/cejs/campus-sustainability/landscape–urban-gardening/. After a walk, there’s space for peaceful meditation at the Chapel of St. Ignatius.

Architect Steven Holl chose “A Gathering of Different Lights” as the guiding concept for the design of the Chapel of St. Ignatius.

Thanks to Pam P.

Thanks to Bob P. (no pun intended)

Ed note: The destruction in Gaza has been brutal and accusations of war crimes have been levied. But do we really understand what happened on October 7th?

By Bret Stephens

Opinion Columnist in the NYT. Thanks to Leo B.

Click on the link below to watch the full documentary.

There is a scene in “Screams Before Silence,” the harrowing documentary about the rape and mutilation of Israeli women on Oct. 7, that I can’t get out of my head. It’s an interview that the former Facebook chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg, the documentary’s presenter, conducted with Ayelet Levy Sachar, the mother of 19-year-old Naama Levy, whose kidnapping that morning was filmed by Hamas. The sight of her pajama bottoms, drenched in blood at the back, was one of the earliest indications that sexual brutality was part of Hamas’s playbook.

“They’re grabbing her by the hair, and she’s all, like, messed up and like, and I’m thinking of her hair, and like, in my mind I’m stroking her hair, like I’m always doing,” Levy Sachar said of the video of her daughter’s kidnapping. “We would like to think that this couldn’t be possible. That nobody would harm a young girl. But then you just see it there.”

To have a child seized, savaged and paraded this way goes beyond a parent’s worst nightmare. Here it is compounded by an additional horror: the combination of indifference and outright denial with which much of the world has treated these sexual atrocities.

Why? “People are so polarized that they want every fact to fit into a narrative, and if their narrative is resistance, then sexual violence doesn’t fit into that narrative,” Sandberg told me when I met her in New York last Thursday, hours before the documentary’s premiere at The Times Center. “You can believe that Gaza is happening because Israel has no choice; you can believe that Gaza is happening because Israel wants to kill babies. You can hold either one of those thoughts. And you should also be able to hold the thought that sexual violence is unacceptable, no matter what.”

To watch “Screams Before Silence” is to be disabused of any lingering doubts about what Hamas did. The personal testimonies of victims, survivors and witnesses are clear and overpowering, as is the photographic evidence Sandberg was shown of mutilated corpses. And some of them have scarcely been heard about outside Israel. (continued)

Thanks to Pam P.

by Heather Cox Richardson and Michael S. Green

Ed note: For fun, please add your own (Secretariat above): How about Seattle Slew, Seabiscuit, Champion (Gene Autry); Silver (the Lone Ranger); Scout (Tonto); or Topper (Hopalong Cassidy)”

1) Traveller

General Robert E. Lee rode Traveller (spelled with two Ls, in the British style) from February 1862 until the general’s death in 1870. Traveller was a grey American Saddlebred of 16 hands. He had great endurance for long marches, and was generally unflappable in battle, although he once broke both of General Lee’s hands when he shied at enemy movements. Lee brought Traveller with him when he assumed the presidency of Washington and Lee University. Traveller died of tetanus in 1871. He is buried on campus, where the safe ride program still uses his name.

2) Comanche

Comanche was attached to General Custer’s detachment of the 7th Cavalry when it engaged the Lakota in 1876 at the Battle of Little Bighorn. The troops in the detachment were all killed in the engagement, but soldiers found Comanche, badly wounded, two days later. They nursed him back to health, and he became the 7th Cavalry’s mascot. The commanding officer decreed that the horse would never again be ridden and that he would always be paraded, draped in black, in all military ceremonies involving the 7th Cavalry. When Comanche died of colic in 1891, he was given a full military funeral (the only other horse so honored was Black Jack, who served in more than a thousand military funerals in the 1950s and 1960s). Comanche’s taxidermied body is preserved in the Natural History Museum at the University Of Kansas.

3) Beautiful Jim Key

Beautiful Jim Key was a performing horse trained by formerly enslaved veterinarian Dr. William Key. Key demonstrated how Beautiful Jim could read, write, do math, tell time, spell, sort mail, and recite the Bible. Beautiful Jim performed from 1897 to 1906 and became a legend. An estimated ten million Americans saw him perform, and others collected his memorabilia—buttons, photos, and postcards—or danced the Beautiful Jim Key two-step. Dr. Key insisted that he had taught Beautiful Jim using only kindness, and Beautiful Jim Key’s popularity was important in preventing cruelty to animals in America, with more than 2 million children signing the Jim Key Band of Mercy, in which they pledged: “I promise always to be kind to animals.”

4) Man o’ War

Named for his owner, August Belmont, Jr., who was overseas in World War I, Man o’ War is widely regarded as the top Thoroughbred racehorse of all time. He won 20 of his 21 races and almost a quarter of a million dollars in the early twentieth century. His one loss—to “Upset”—came after a bad start. Man o’ War sired many of America’s famous racehorses, including Hard Tack, which in turn sired Seabiscuit, the small horse that came to symbolize hope during the Great Depression.

5) Trigger

Entertainer Roy Rogers chose the palomino Trigger from five rented horses to be his mount in a Western film in the 1930s, changing his name from Golden Cloud to Trigger because of his quick mind and feet. Rogers rode Trigger in his 1950s television series, making the horse a household name. When Trigger died, Rogers had his skin draped over a Styrofoam mold and displayed it in the Roy Rogers and Dale Evans Museum in California. He also had a 24-foot statue of Trigger made from steel and fiberglass. One other copy of that mold was also made: it is “Bucky the Bronco,” which rears above the Denver Broncos stadium south scoreboard. (continued)

Frustrated cities and states have begun fining facilities for nonemergency calls, but some just keep calling

Ed note: When I moved into our independent living residence 10 years ago, I was instructed that if a resident falls or is found down, that the staff must always call 911 and not to touch the patient other that trying to make them comfortable.

However, a resident can be down for a number of reasons: a simple slip without injury; a fall hitting one’s head; a fall with a hip, leg or shoulder fracture; a cardiac arrhythmia casing low blood pressure; or even a heart attack with cardiac arrest.

Things have improved a bit over the years. We have balance and fall prevention sessions; grab bars are in most residences (we had to pay to have ours installed). We now allow staff to perform CPR if indicated and we offer training in the use of AED’s.

Falls are nuanced. I have tripped and fallen and gotten myself up. Some, when seeing a slip and fall by a resident, will bring a chair to them and allow the resident (who denies pain or injury) to pull themselves up. So common sense can come into play. Yes, we or our facility can be sued, but that’s part of life these days. Independent and Assisted Living are not really staffed to safely evaluate and lift a resident up in many situations. In talking to 911 responders they’ve told me, “Please do call us, we don’t mind and we’d rather you didn’t try to lift someone up.” So, I think this article may not reflect the excellent service we have in Seattle. It also seems to ignore the serious injuries or medical issues that may be associated with a fall.

By Todd C. Frankel in the Washington Post (thanks to Frank C. and Deborah C.)

ROCKFORD, Ill. — The 911 call came just before 8 a.m., and Ladder 5′s four-man crew scrambled to the truck just as their overnight shift was about to end. It was the kind of call that veteran firefighter Chad Callison said he dreaded.

It was not a heart attack, or a car crash or a building fire.

It was a “lift assist” at Heritage Woods, a local assisted-living facility.

Lift-assist 911 calls from assisted living and other senior homes have spiked by 30 percent nationwide in recent years to nearly 42,000 calls a year, an analysis of fire department emergency call data by The Washington Post has found. That’s nearly three times faster than the increase in overall 911 call volume during the same 2019-2022 period, the data shows.

The growth has infuriated first responders who say these kinds of calls — which involve someone who has fallen and is not injured but can’t get up — unfairly burden taxpayers and occupy firefighters with nonemergencies that should be handled by staff at facilities that charge residents as much as $7,000 a month.

Illinois is a hot spot for the controversy: Lift assists here accounted for 1 in 20 of all 911 fire calls, the highest proportion of any state, the data shows. In Rockford, a city of 150,000 residents about an hour outside Chicago, five assisted-living facilities — including Heritage Woods — called for noninjury lift assists 233 times last year, triple the number of calls in 2021.

When firefighters arrived at Heritage Woods that morning, caretakers at the facility directed them to an elderly resident lying on the floor. She was perfectly fine, she said, she just couldn’t get back on her feet by herself. The facility’s staff wouldn’t lift her. So two firefighters helped her up and made sure she was okay, Callison recalled and fire records show. Ten minutes after arriving on the scene, Ladder 5 was back in service.

“It doesn’t make sense,” Callison said. “Why are they calling us?”

Two student groups have now set up tents on the Seattle campus quad, demanding the university cut ties with Israel and Boeing.

by Scarlet Hansen in Crosscut

An encampment on the University of Washington campus has grown to more than 100 demonstrators after a second group set up a protest zone in solidarity with Gaza. Both groups are calling on the University to cut ties with Israel and Boeing. 

The initial encampment established Monday morning by UW’s Progressive Student Union now sits across the path from the United Front’s “Popular University for Gaza.” United Front members say they wanted to ensure adequate resources and community support to protect the safety of their members before establishing their “liberated zone.”

“We [UF and PSU] are sharing this space, we are fighting for the same cause which is standing in solidarity with Palestinians,” said United Front member and UW student Isaac, who asked that his last name not be used out of concern for privacy and possible retribution. “We are here in the struggle together.” (continued)

By Thomas L. Friedman Opinion Columnist, reporting from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia and Israel are America’s two most important Middle East allies, and the Biden administration is deeply involved with both today, trying to forge a mutual defense treaty with Saudi Arabia and help Israel in its conflicts with Hamas and Iran. But the Biden team has run into an unprecedented situation with these two longtime partners that is creating a huge opportunity and a huge danger for America. It derives from the contrast in their internal politics.

To put it bluntly, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has put his country’s worst religious extremists in jail, while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has put his country’s worst religious extremists in his cabinet.

And therein lies a tale.

M.B.S., with his laser focus on economic growth after several decades that he has described Saudi Arabia as having been “sleeping,” has unleashed the most important social revolution ever in the desert kingdom — and one that is sending shock waves around the Arab world. It has reached a point where the U.S. and Saudi Arabia are now putting the finishing touches on a formal alliance that could isolate Iran, curb China’s influence in the Middle East and peacefully inspire more positive change in this region than the U.S. invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan ever did militarily.

M.B.S.’s government did something appalling when it killed Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, a liberal critic living in the United States, in Istanbul in 2018. M.B.S. has also done something none of his predecessors dared: break the stranglehold that the most conservative Islamists held over Saudi social and religious policy since 1979. This shift has proved so popular among so many Saudi women and young people that women’s participation in the work force jumped to 35 percent from 20 percent between 2018 and 2022, according to a report by the Atlantic Council, and is even higher today.

That is one of the most rapid social changes anywhere in the world. In Riyadh, you see its impact on the city’s streets, in its coffeehouses and in government and business offices. Saudi women aren’t just driving cars; they are driving change, in the diplomatic corps, in the biggest banks and in the recent Saudi women’s premier soccer league. M.B.S.’s radical new vision for his country is nowhere more manifest than in his publicly stated willingness to normalize diplomatic and economic relations with the Jewish state as part of a new mutual defense pact with the United States.

The crown prince wants as peaceful a region as possible, and a Saudi Arabia as secure from Iran as possible, so he can focus on making Saudi Arabia a diversified economic powerhouse.

That used to be Israel too. Alas, the tragedy of Israel under Netanyahu is that because he has been so desperate to gain and hold power to avoid possible jail time on corruption charges, he has created a governing coalition that has given unprecedented power to two far-right Jewish supremacists with authority in three ministries — defense, finance and national security — and prioritized a judicial coup before it did anything else. Netanyahu has also made unparalleled concessions to ultra-Orthodox rabbis, transferring enormous sums of money to their schools that often don’t teach math, English or civics and most of whose draft-age men refuse to serve in the army at all, let alone alongside women. (continued)

Thanks to Bob P.

Thanks to Mike C.

Thanks to Pam P.

Thanks to Bob P.

New research explores why some octogenarians have exceptional memories.

By Dana G. Smith in the NYT

When it comes to aging, we tend to assume that cognition gets worse as we get older. Our thoughts may slow down or become confused, or we may start to forget things, like the name of our high school English teacher or what we meant to buy at the grocery store.

But that’s not the case for everyone.

For a little over a decade, scientists have been studying a subset of people they call “super-agers.” These individuals are age 80 and up, but they have the memory ability of a person 20 to 30 years younger.

Most research on aging and memory focuses on the other side of the equation — people who develop dementia in their later years. But, “if we’re constantly talking about what’s going wrong in aging, it’s not capturing the full spectrum of what’s happening in the older adult population,” said Emily Rogalski, a professor of neurology at the University of Chicago, who published one of the first studies on super-agers in 2012.

A paper published Monday in the Journal of Neuroscience helps shed light on what’s so special about the brains of super-agers. The biggest takeaway, in combination with a companion study that came out last year on the same group of individuals, is that their brains have less atrophy than their peers’ do.

The research was conducted on 119 octogenarians from Spain: 64 super-agers and 55 older adults with normal memory abilities for their age. The participants completed multiple tests assessing their memory, motor and verbal skills; underwent brain scans and blood draws; and answered questions about their lifestyle and behaviors.

The scientists found that the super-agers had more volume in areas of the brain important for memory, most notably the hippocampus and entorhinal cortex. They also had better preserved connectivity between regions in the front of the brain that are involved in cognition. Both the super-agers and the control group showed minimal signs of Alzheimer’s disease in their brains. (continued)

Comments from Heather Cox Richardson (thanks to Pam P.)

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