Salty Sheep's blog: "Open randoms"

After her mother’s sudden death, Catherine Kelly felt the call of the sea. She was in her 20s and had been working as a geographer in London away from her native Ireland. She spent a year in Dublin with her family, then accepted an academic position on the west coast, near Westport in County Mayo. “I thought: ‘I need to go and get my head cleared in this place, to be blown away by the wind and nature.’”

Kelly bought a little house in a remote area and surfed, swam and walked a three-mile-long beach twice a day. “I guess the five or six years that I spent there on the wild Atlantic coast just healed me, really.”

She didn’t understand why that might be until some years later, when she started to see scientific literature that proved what she had long felt intuitively to be true: that she felt much better by the sea. For the past eight years, Kelly has been based in Brighton, researching “outdoor wellbeing” and the therapeutic effects of nature – particularly of water.

In recent years, stressed-out urbanites have been seeking refuge in green spaces, for which the proven positive impacts on physical and mental health are often cited in arguments for more inner-city parks and accessible woodlands. The benefits of “blue space” – the sea and coastline, but also rivers, lakes, canals, waterfalls, even fountains – are less well publicised, yet the science has been consistent for at least a decade: being by water is good for body and mind.

Proximity to water – especially the sea – is associated with many positive measures of physical and mental wellbeing, from higher levels of vitamin D to better social relations. “Many of the processes are exactly the same as with green space – with some added benefits,” says Dr Mathew White, a senior lecturer at the University of Exeter and an environmental psychologist with BlueHealth, a programme researching the health and wellbeing benefits of blue space across 18 (mostly European) countries.

An extensive 2013 study on happiness in natural environments – to White’s mind, “one of the best ever” – prompted 20,000 smartphone users to record their sense of wellbeing and their immediate environment at random intervals. Marine and coastal margins were found by some distance to be the happiest locations, with responses approximately six points higher than in a continuous urban environment. The researchers equated it to “the difference between attending an exhibition and doing housework”.

Although living within 1km (0.6 miles) of the coast – and to a lesser extent, within 5km (3.1 miles) – has been associated with better general and mental health, it seems to be the propensity to visit that is key. “We find people who visit the coast, for example, at least twice weekly tend to experience better general and mental health,” says Dr Lewis Elliott, also of the University of Exeter and BlueHealth. “Some of our research suggests around two hours a week is probably beneficial, across many sectors of society.” Even sea views have been associated with better mental health.

White says there are three established pathways by which the presence of water is positively related to health, wellbeing and happiness. First, there are the beneficial environmental factors typical of aquatic environments, such as less polluted air and more sunlight. Second, people who live by water tend to be more physically active – not just with water sports, but walking and cycling.

Third – and this is where blue space seems to have an edge over other natural environments – water has a psychologically restorative effect. White says spending time in and around aquatic environments has consistently been shown to lead to significantly higher benefits, in inducing positive mood and reducing negative mood and stress, than green space does.

People of all socioeconomic groups go to the coast to spend quality time with friends and family. Dr Sian Rees, a marine scientist at the University of Plymouth, says the coastline is Britain’s “most socially levelling environment”, whereas forests tend to be accessed by high-income earners. “It’s not seen as being elite or a special place, it’s where we just go and have fun.

“By spending time in these environments, you’re getting what we call ‘health by stealth’ – enjoying the outdoors, interacting with the physical environment – and that also has some different health benefits.”

Even a fountain may do. A 2010 study (of which White was lead author) found that images of built environments containing water were generally rated just as positively as those of only green space; researchers suggested that the associated soundscape and the quality of light on water might be enough to have a restorative effect.

Although participants rated large bodies of water higher than other aquatic environments (and “swampy areas” were rated significantly less positively), the study suggested that any water is better than none – presenting opportunities for beneficial blue space to be designed or retrofitted. “You can’t change where the coast is, but when we’re talking about translating the benefits to other types of environments, there is nothing to stop a well-designed urban fountain,” says Elliott.

“People work with what they have,” says Kelly. When she lived in London, she would head for the Thames when she had a spare 10 minutes “and recalibrate”. Then, four times a year, she would go to Brighton “and the benefits would keep me going for the next few months – so I didn’t get into a place of being overwhelmed or stressed, just keeping myself topped up”.

The coast does seem to be especially effective, however. White suggests this is due to the ebb and flow of the tides. He points out that rumination – focusing on negative thoughts about one’s distress – is an established factor in depression. “What we find is that spending time walking on the beach, there’s a transition towards thinking outwards towards the environment, thinking about those patterns – putting your life in perspective, if you like.”

When you are sailing, surfing or swimming, says White, “you’re really in tune with natural forces there – you have to understand the motion of the wind, the movement of the water”. By being forced to concentrate on the qualities of the environment, we access a cognitive state honed over millennia. “We’re kind of getting back in touch with our historical heritage, cognitively.” Water is, quite literally, immersive.

As well as an academic, Kelly is a wellness practitioner who teaches classes in “mindfulness by the sea”. She says the sea has a meditative quality – whether it is crashing or still, or you are in the water or observing from the shore. “You can immerse yourself in it, which you can’t really do with a green space. You’re present in that moment, you’re looking at something with intention, and whether that’s for two minutes or half an hour, it gives you the benefits in that moment.”

In the future, she believes time in blue space will be a mainstream, formalised response. “The mental health crisis isn’t going anywhere,” she says.

Rees says support for the idea of “blue” or “green” prescriptions for individuals is growing. A “surfing for mental health” group in north Devon is one example she gives of how “nature-based interventions” can work.

By working to characterise and quantify benefits, BlueHealth’s cross-disciplinary team hopes to establish how “blue infrastructure” – the coast, rivers, inland lakes – can help tackle major public health challenges such as obesity, physical inactivity and mental health disorders. A 2016 paper – which White co-authored – put the monetary value of the health benefit of engaging with the marine environment at £176m.

Harnessing the power of blue space could also potentially help to alleviate inequality. “One of our recent papers finds that the benefits of coastal living are strongest for people living in the poorest areas,” says Elliott. For that reason, it is crucial to ensure everyone has access. With proximity to water associated with at least a 10% premium in house prices, White is concerned by the exclusivity of seaside urban development. “What will happen is you’ll get this kind of gentrification, where the people who benefit most will get squeezed inland.”

Access provisions under the revised Marine and Coastal Access Act, which is due to be completed next year, will help, says White. But seaside communities are particularly vulnerable, imminently from seasonal fluctuations in income and environmental degradation, and, in the longer term, sea level rise and extreme weather due to climate change.

Rees says that the benefits of marine environments for our wellbeing are tied to the health of those environments, and that conservation efforts need to factor in the “natural capital” of blue space in supporting our wellbeing. Kelly’s work has found a link between a sense of personal connection to the sea and environmentally friendly behaviours; researchers hope that we may be more inclined to protect blue space if the health benefits are proven.

“To go to the sea is synonymous with letting go,” says Kelly. “It could be lying on a beach or somebody handing you a cocktail. For somebody else, it could be a wild, empty coast. But there is this really human sense of: ‘Oh, look, there’s the sea’ – and the shoulders drop.”

Copied from The Guardian

Another article..not one I enjoyed reading to be honest. This is from the Independent.

Over the past few decades, the United States government approved thousands of requests by men to bring in child or adolescent bides to live in the country, according to newly collated federal data.

In one of those cases, a 49-year-old man applied to admit a 15-year-old child bride into the US.

These application approvals are legal. The are no set minimum age requirements under the Immigration and Nationality Act. And as for spouse and fiancees petitions, US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) determines their application decisions based on whether the  marriage in question is legal in the country of origin, and if it would be legal in the state where the petition resides.

The data obtained by the Associated Press, however, prompts scrutiny on whether the immigration system is enabling forced marriages, and how American laws are exacerbating the problem despite its attempts to curb child and forced marriages.

From 2007 to 2017, there were 3.5 million petitions received. Within that time period, there were 5,556 approvals for those seeking to bring in their minor spouses or fiances, and 2,926 by minors bringing in their older spouses, according to data by the Senate Homeland Security Committee in 2017.

In almost all of these cases, the female was the younger person in the relationship. In 149 cases, the adults were older than 40, and in 28 cases, they were over 50, the committee discovered.

Forced marriage victims say that draw of a US passport and relaxed American marriage laws are a driving force behind these petitions. In order to obtain an US immigration visa or green card, there is a two-step process: the petition must first be reviewed by USCIS before being approved by the state department. The petitions must be filed by either a US citizen or a permanent resident.

Republican Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson, chairman of the Senate homeland security committee, told the AP the data points to a startling issue in the immigration system. “It indicates a problem,” Mr Johnson said. “It indicates a loophole that we need to close.”

Although most states place some restrictions, marriages between adults and minors are not uncommon in the US. American state laws set 18-years-old as the minimum age for marriage, but every state allows exceptions.

Some states let 16- and 17-year-olds to marry as long as they have parental consent, and in states like New York, Virginia and Maryland, children under the age of 16 are allowed to marry with court permission.

Sarah Harvard

Article in today's Guardian

A few years later, a crisis in his employer’s business forced him to devote his energies to establishing the organic network. Too busy to sell his compost, Eisenbach grew vegetables on it. He assumed the crops would eventually exhaust the compost. Oddly, however, as the compost aged, his vegetable yields got bigger and bigger.

He dispatched old compost for laboratory tests. The lab scientist phoned him, baffled: he’d never seen such strange material. Nitrogen levels were unusually high for a compost; it also held moisture uncharacteristically well and released pure water – no nitrates washed out as they do with conventional, water-soluble fertilisers.

Eisenbach shows me his small plant on the edge of Kalamata where he makes what he calls biocyclic humus soil. There’s one small shed, two employees, and 12 long hummocks of black soil tended by a mini-tractor – a purpose-built Swiss composter. He first mixes grape pomace, olive leaves and olive cake. The temperature must be above 56C to kill harmful micro-organisms. For a month, the mini-tractor churns the compost like a whisk and adds water daily. For another three months, the compost is turned weekly to enter the first stage of “ripeness”.

“Even with a difficult raw material you can produce a fantastic ripe, balanced compost within five months,” says Eisenbach. “Everybody would say this is a ripe compost. But it is not a ripe compost.” As he accidentally discovered, extra benefits occur when this compost is left to mature for up to four years. In one row of maturing compost, Eisenbach is growing vegetables directly into the humus soil. He picks a lettuce – it is the size of a large pumpkin.

A few years later, a crisis in his employer’s business forced him to devote his energies to establishing the organic network. Too busy to sell his compost, Eisenbach grew vegetables on it. He assumed the crops would eventually exhaust the compost. Oddly, however, as the compost aged, his vegetable yields got bigger and bigger.

He dispatched old compost for laboratory tests. The lab scientist phoned him, baffled: he’d never seen such strange material. Nitrogen levels were unusually high for a compost; it also held moisture uncharacteristically well and released pure water – no nitrates washed out as they do with conventional, water-soluble fertilisers.

Eisenbach shows me his small plant on the edge of Kalamata where he makes what he calls biocyclic humus soil. There’s one small shed, two employees, and 12 long hummocks of black soil tended by a mini-tractor – a purpose-built Swiss composter. He first mixes grape pomace, olive leaves and olive cake. The temperature must be above 56C to kill harmful micro-organisms. For a month, the mini-tractor churns the compost like a whisk and adds water daily. For another three months, the compost is turned weekly to enter the first stage of “ripeness”.

“Even with a difficult raw material you can produce a fantastic ripe, balanced compost within five months,” says Eisenbach. “Everybody would say this is a ripe compost. But it is not a ripe compost.” As he accidentally discovered, extra benefits occur when this compost is left to mature for up to four years. In one row of maturing compost, Eisenbach is growing vegetables directly into the humus soil. He picks a lettuce – it is the size of a large pumpkin.

Demand for ‘vegan’ fruit and veg

“There are a lot of biocyclic vegan products on the market already but people don’t know that they were actually grown vegan,” says Axel Anders, the Berlin-based coordinator for Biocyclic Vegan Agriculture. “It’s like organic farming 40 years ago. We experience the same resistance. People say using plant-based composts doesn’t work; even organic farmers have the same attitude.”

Farms and fruit orchards in Greece and Cyprus have been among the first to adopt its new certification, growing produce for export to German, Austria and the Netherlands, where there is increasing demand for “vegan” fruit and veg.

On the sunny plains of Northern Greece, groves of peaches and nectarines mingle with rectangles planted with potatoes and courgettes. Orange orbs of hokkaido squash ripen as birds sing in thick hedges. A luxuriant field of broccoli dances with scores of large white butterflies.

The abundance of bird and insect life is unusual and Óthon Grigoriádis and his daughter, Stephanie, do not resemble typical farmers. Grigoriádis is a studious engineer and wears a smart shirt; Stephanie wears luminous trainers and sportswear. Their farm, Oiko Bio, is organic and now has the biocyclic vegan standard too.

What’s really remarkable about this “vegan” farm is the size of its vegetables. Organic yields are typically 20-30% lower than farms that use synthetic fertilisers and chemical pesticides. But Oiko Bio has had a spectacular harvest this year. One hokkaido plant has produced nine squashes; plants often produce only two. Stephanie shows me photos of their earlier courgette harvest. She taps her phone for more data. This 0.2-hectare (0.5-acre) field produced 1,500kg of courgette: 7.5 tonnes per hectare. The previous year, on the same field, with similar weather, it was five tonnes.

Like most farmers, Stephanie and her father are naturally cautious. “I’m not sure about anything if I don’t see the results,” says Stephanie. Does the biocyclic humus soil really work? “Yes, I’m sure, and I see a difference in the broccoli here.”

Is there a demand for vegan vegetables? “In other European countries, maybe,” she smiles. “In Greece, we are still thinking about vegans. I’m not sure about vegans. In Greece people still eat a lot of meat.”

It’s a point reiterated by Dimitrios Bilalis, professor of agronomy at the Agricultural University of Athens. “Ten years ago if you said you were vegan in Greece, it was a joke,” he says. Now a third of his students are vegan. “Unfortunately,” he grins.

Bilalis and his colleagues have been studying the qualities of Eisenbach’s humus soil. These include Eisenbach’s daughter, Lydia, who was so interested in her father’s compost she sought to scientifically test its capabilities. In trials now published in peer-reviewed scientific papers, Bilalis, Lydia Eisenbach and colleagues measured yields of tomato and sweet potato growing in humus soil, an inorganic fertiliser and a control. Tomatoes’ average marketable yield was 7.95 tonnes per hectare in humus soil compared with 4 tonnes in the plots with the inorganic fertiliser and even less in the control; the sweet potato yield was 24.3 tonnes per hectare in humus soil compared with just 3.2 tonnes in the inorganic fertiliser plot.

What are the constituent parts of biocyclic humus soil and why is it so effective? “There is not a concrete answer in science,” says Lydia Eisenbach, who since graduating from the Agricultural University of Athens now works alongside her father. “We don’t know all the chemical substances within this complex of organic matter that is called humus. It’s carbon but it’s not only this.”

According to Bilalis, the humus soil contains natural hormones that help root development; crops grown on it have particularly good root architecture, which penetrates the soil more deeply. He believes that the humus soil probably produces similar yields to animal manure fertilisers but he is alive to its additional benefits. Produced on a larger scale, he says, it would better use olive grove and viticulture waste. Its lack of solubility means nitrates won’t wash into and pollute rivers.

There is no patent on this humus soil, so why is it not ubiquitous? “Agro-terrorism,” grimaces Bilalis. He argues that big chemical corporations hinder simpler solutions that are better for people, crops and wildlife. “It’s very difficult to penetrate the market because the barriers come from big companies. Unfortunately the food we serve in big cities is industrial food – the fruit has to be the same size, the same colour, like cars.”

But there is also a catch. Doesn’t the four years it takes to turn good compost into humus soil make it too expensive for large-scale use? Eisenbach anticipates demand for (expensive) mature humus soil from small-scale urban growers who can cultivate vegetables in rooftop soil bags. But he hopes that conventional organic farmers in his network will buy it as affordable “ripe compost” and ripen it on their land. While letting it mature into humus soil, they can grow vegetables in it, so land is not wasted.

Can he convince farmers to store it for four years? “We have to persuade them,” smiles Eisenbach. He considers biocyclic humus soil a kind of open source software, and hopes farmers will test it. He’s convinced it can be produced beyond Greece – using other plant materials – as well. “At the moment we are producing agricultural products looking at nature as our enemy,” he says. “We try to fight to get fertiliser into the soil. We just have to understand that nature is in favour of us. We will not be perfect because there is nothing more perfect than nature, but we have to imitate nature as closely as possible.”

Patrick Barkham

Ladies and Gentlemen of the class of ’97:

Wear sunscreen. If I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen would be it. The long term benefits of sunscreen have been proved by scientists whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable than my own meandering experience. I will dispense this advice now

Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth; or never mind. You will not understand the power and beauty of your youth until they have faded. But trust me, in 20 years you’ll look back at photos of yourself and recall in a way you can’t grasp now how much possibility lay before you and how fabulous you really looked. You are not as fat as you imagine

Don’t worry about the future; or worry, but know that worrying is as effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing
Bubblegum. The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that
Never crossed your worried mind; the kind that blindside you at 4 PM on some idle Tuesday

Do one thing every day that scares you

Sing

Don’t be reckless with other people’s hearts; don’t put up with people who are reckless with yours

Floss

Don’t waste your time on jealousy; sometimes you’re ahead, sometimes you’re behind. The race is long, and in the end, it’s only with yourself

Remember the compliments you receive; forget the insults. If you succeed in doing this, tell me how

Keep your old love letters. Throw away your old bank statements

Stretch

Don’t feel guilty if you don’t know what you want to do with your
Life. The most interesting people I know didn’t know at 22 what they wanted to do with their lives. Some of the most interesting 40-year-olds I know still don’t

Get plenty of calcium

Be kind to your knees, you’ll miss them when they’re gone

Maybe you’ll marry, maybe you won’t
Maybe you’ll have children, maybe you won’t
Maybe you’ll divorce at 40
Maybe you’ll dance the funky chicken on your 75th wedding anniversary
Whatever you do, don’t congratulate yourself too much, or berate yourself either. Your choices are half chance; so are everybody else’s

Enjoy your body. Use it every way you can. Don’t be afraid of it, or what other people think of it. It’s the greatest instrument you’ll ever own

Dance, even if you have nowhere to do it but in your own living room

Read the directions, even if you don’t follow them

Do not read beauty magazines; they will only make you feel ugly

Get to know your parents; you never know when they’ll be gone for good

Be nice to your siblings; they are your best link to your past and the
People most likely to stick with you in the future

Understand that friends come and go, but for the precious few you
Should hold on

Work hard to bridge the gaps in geography and lifestyle, because the older you get, the more you need the people you knew when you were young

Live in New York City once, but leave before it makes you hard

Live in Northern California once, but leave before it makes you soft

Travel

Accept certain inalienable truths: prices will rise, politicians will philander, you too will get old-- and when you do, you’ll fantasize that when you were young prices were reasonable, politicians were noble and children respected their elders

Respect your elders

Don’t expect anyone else to support you

Maybe you have a trust fund, maybe you have a wealthy spouse; but you never know when either one might run out

Don’t mess too much with your hair, or by the time you're 40, it will look 85

Be careful whose advice you buy, but be patient with those who supply it
Advice is a form of nostalgia. Dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than it’s worth

But trust me on the sunscreen

~Mary Schmich

Article in today's Guardian

A year ago, a 24-year-old woman with depression was given an unusual prescription by her doctor: a weekly swim in cold water.

The patient, Sarah, was filmed as part of the BBC documentary series The Doctor Who Gave Up Drugs, presented by Christoffer van Tulleken, a doctor and researcher at University College London.

“It was a series that looked at our most prescribed drugs, particularly where there are weaknesses in the evidence for their effectiveness,” said Van Tulleken. Sarah had been on treatment for major depressive disorder and anxiety since she was 17, but her symptoms were resistant to first-line treatment and the drugs made her feel as if she was in a “chemical fog”.

After she gave birth to her daughter, Sarah wanted to be medication- and symptom-free. Under Van Tulleken’s supervision, she gradually reduced her doses of medication and began a programme of weekly swimming in open water with a temperature of 15C. Within four months of this unconventional treatment, Sarah was drug-free – and her symptoms had stopped.

Depression is a leading cause of disability worldwide, and Van Tulleken says prescriptions for antidepressants are on the rise. “In the real world, antidepressants are taken for many, many years,” said Van Tulleken, adding that the “biggest analysis” of the effectiveness of these medications was a study published in The Lancetthat followed patients for only eight weeks. With this in mind, many researchers are studying alternatives to medication.

Sarah’s story formed the basis for a case report published in the British Medical Journal that Van Tulleken co-authored. In the report, Van Tulleken and his colleagues describe Sarah’s experience and highlight the need for further research to establish if and how cold water swimming might work for other patients.

The body’s initial response to immersion in cold water is an immediate cooling of the skin, which results in cold water shock. This can be extremely dangerous, especially for those with certain medical conditions, as it leads to a massive increase in breathing and heart rate.

Michael Tipton, a professor at the department of sport and exercise science at the University of Portsmouth and a co-author of the report, said: “For years we worried more about the dangerous aspects of cold water immersion rather than thinking about the beneficial side.”

Cold water swimming also activates stress responses in the body, and repeated exposure to cold water can result in a process of adaptation called habituation.

“One theory is that if you adapt to cold water, you also blunt your stress response to other daily stresses such as road rage, exams or getting fired at work,” said Van Tulleken.

According to Shirley Reynolds, a clinical psychologist and professor at the University of Reading who was not involved with the work, there is evidence that doing a meaningful activity like exercise is helpful in and of itself. Reynolds also commented that “a single case can’t tell us anything” about the effectiveness of the intervention, which “could be a natural recovery or response to placebo”.

Van Tulleken said that even if it is the cold water swimming that is responsible for the improvements that Sarah experienced, further studies would be needed to understand why.

Of Sarah herself, he said: “She’s a phenomenal person – she’s just a really unusually strong, resilient, brave person.” And although it’s not clear how the cold water treatment worked, or whether it was a placebo, it has helped at least one person. To date, Sarah remains medication-free and is still swimming.