Last month I revisited the health benefits of sauna for the Mercury Fitness Issue, in which I gave props to Löyly—the gorgeously minimal, white-walled space off SE Clinton (2713 SE 21st) that gave Portland its most glamorous option for Finnish-style sweat sessions when it opened back in 2006. Apparently most of you already knew that, […]
Health
Posted inHealth
Work That Pole: My Visit to a Pole Dancing Class
Illustration: Olivia Storm THERE ARE LIFE SKILLS important for day-to-day existence, and there are life skills developed solely to impress and amaze those around you. The “booty clap” belongs in the second category. When I signed up for Ecdysiast’s beginner pole dancing fitness class, I figured I’d learn a few of the basic acrobatic skills […]
Posted inNews
Here are the Dire Results of Multnomah County’s Health Disparity “Report Card.”
The Multnomah County Health Department is releasing a “report card” this morning that offers a snapshot of the disparities between white Multnomah Countians and minority populations in the county. You can guess what the results are. In category after vital category, people of color experience a slew of adverse factors at greater rates than white […]
Posted inEvents
Muscle Memory: Drumming & Yoga with Lisa Schonberg
Explode into Colors, Secret Drum Band… when I think of the world of Lisa Schonberg, it’s all prisms and triangles and art grants for experimental performances in Joshua Tree. There’s also her work in entomology and as the NW correspondent for Tom Tom Magazine, so of course she is now co-teaching a class that taps […]
Posted inHealth
ClassPass & Your Ass
Like many of you, I worry about my ass. Especially during the winter months and especially, especially during the holidays. Duh. I mean for one thing it’s too dark to go running before work, and too dark to go running after work too, which forces one to spend more time and money on the inside […]
Posted inPolitics
A Found Poem of Outrageous Things Republicans (and CNN) Have Said About Ebola
Christopher Halloran/Shutterstock One of the poets waves to his adoring audience after delivering a new verse. Ebola: The ISIS of Biological Agents? [1.] The protocol for a positive Ebola testshould beimmediate humane executionandsanitization of the whole area.That will save lives. [2.]They say it’s hard to getObama’s telling us thatthe CDC guy is telling us it’shardtogetthey’re […]
Posted inGirls Only!
Federal Judge in Alabama Cleverly Equates Abortion Rights to Gun Rights
Before an hour ago, I couldn’t have named one good thing to come out of Alabama off the top of my head, except maybe Helen Keller. But good news! Now I have one more thing: Last week, Judge Myron H. Thompson, a federal judge in that state, ruled that a new law requiring abortion doctors […]
Posted inCourts
Courts Do Battle Over Typo in Obamacare
If, like me, you woke up this morning to the alarming news that a couple of activist judges basically curb-stomped Obamacare to death, you might want to read this ThinkProgress post, which explains the thinking behind the ruling: The two Republicans’ decision rests on a glorified typo in the Affordable Care Act itself. Obamacare gives […]
Posted inPolitics
Under Bush: 8 Million Lost Health Insurance; Under Obama: 15 Million Have Already Gained Health Insurance
Eclectablog: Of George W. Bush’s myriad of failures that continue to wreck havoc at home and abroad, 7.9 million Americans losing their health insurance rarely gets mentioned. “When [former president Bill] Clinton left office, the number of uninsured Americans stood at 38.4 million,” Ron Brownstein wrote in 2009. “By the time [former president George W.] […]
Posted inTV
Anderson Cooper and the “Schizophrenia Simulator”
For a recent segment on his CNN show 360, Anderson Cooper spends a day wearing a “schizophrenia simulator”—basically headphones that mimic what it’s like to hear voices constantly in your head. The voices, which vary between being very negative and somewhat positive, make it extremely challenging for the normally very smart and level-headed Cooper, who […]
Posted inHealth
Living Near Skinny People Makes Overweight People Unhappy
Slate: If you are overweight, you are not necessarily destined to be sad, says a new study from the University of Colorado–Boulder. The paper comes out today in the Journal of Health and Social Behavior, and it tracks the three-way relationship between obesity, life satisfaction, and where you live. It finds, perhaps unsurprisingly, that obese […]
Posted inNews
There Might Be E. Coli in Your Tap Water. Boil It Before You Drink It.
Portland’s water bureau has begun urging its customers all across Portland, and beyond, not to drink tap water unless its been boiled—after state officials, doing routine tests, discovered E. Coli in water samples taken from two reservoirs on Mount Tabor and elsewhere in the system over the past few days. The city’s got a website […]