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Of all the culinary staples to be found at a luau, poi a nutrient-rich paste made from mashed taro root is the most divisive. As purple as a fading bruise, with the texture of baby food, the sweet and sometimes sour starch, once a pillar of the Native Hawaiian diet, offends the average American palate which is exactly what prompted chef Lee Anne Wong to get creative with it. At Koko Head Cafe, her popular all-day brunch restaurant in Honolulu, she ferments poi into yogurt, sours it into hollandaise sauce, and bakes the koena, or the outer scrapings off the taros corm, the plants fuzzy underground stem, into dense but flaky biscuits.

Wong, who competed in the first season of Top Chef, is one of a handful of local chefs reinterpreting taro (known in Hawaii as kalo) for modern diners. By doing so she hopes to invigorate a Native Hawaiian culinary tradition, which for centuries relied heavily on the crop for both physical and spiritual sustenance (the vegetable features in the origin stories of Polynesian deities like Kane, the god of sunshine and fresh water). She also sees the plant as an exciting gateway to flavor. Once you understand how to work with poi it becomes this incredible ingredient thats really diverse and flexible, she says, noting that the poi typically served at luaus geared toward tourists is factory produced. Compared to hand-pounded poi, its the difference between having Whole Foods sushi and actually sitting down for an omakase from a real sushi chef, she says. For this she pays a hefty price: between $12 and $16 a pound for paiai, the hand-pounded slab of pre-processed taro corm that becomes poi when mixed with water. When you taste the stuff thats been hand-processed and made with love, get that, she says. I think the mana a Polynesian concept that loosely translates to power is actually in the food.

Here, six restaurants in Hawaii that are spotlighting taro in ways both new and old, from a six-course tasting menu in the Maui resort community of Wailea to a take-out-only shack off the Kamehameha Highway on Oahu.

Like his other Honolulu establishments Town and Kaimuki Superette, chef Ed Kenneys buzzy cocktail bar Mud Hen Water focuses on seasonal ingredients from local farmers, with an eye toward invention. The local-born chef interprets island classics with a contemporary twist, dicing bits of Portuguese sausage, an island breakfast favorite, into soupy bowls of pocho mussels and flecking beet poke with smoked macadamia nuts. He also has a revelatory approach to taro, which he blends into hummus and serves with a kukui nut lavash. For the dish Yaki o Paiai, a small slab of pre-processed taro is pounded behind the restaurant then drizzled in shoyu and grilled yakitori style. Wrapped in nori, its reminiscent of mochi, but with a sweet-sour tang.

This shack on the east side of Oahu was originally a poi factory, founded in 1905 when poi was still an affordable staple of the local diet. In the 70s, after demand for poi declined because of westernization and rising costs, the building was converted into an art gallery; it reopened as a Hawaiian food counter in 2009. Poi is now hand-pounded on site, next to picnic tables where locals enjoy savory plates of beef luau stew, composed of slow-cooked taro leaves, dripping shreds of kalua pig (a salty butt roast served at a luau), and lomi lomi salmon, a ceviche-like side dish made with chopped tomato and cucumber. But as its name suggests, poi is the main attraction here, and that focus extends beyond the menu; owner Liko Hoe offers monthly workshops that examine the historical significance of poi in Native Hawaiian culture.

After moving to Oahu from New York in 2013, chef Lee Anne Wong noticed a dearth of casual breakfast cafes catering to local diners. Cue her all-day island-style brunch house, which balances breakfast staples like a goat cheese frittata with her poke omelet (the cubes of tuna are fried and wrapped in egg). On occasion, Wong is also known to serve a poke featuring steamed chunks of taro, which she tops with seared skipjack tuna. But the dish shes most proud of is her local-style eggs Benedict, supported by a poi biscuit and a drizzle of sour poi hollandaise. Its called the Eggs Haloa, after the mythological Hawaiian figure who, as legend has it, reincarnated into the very first taro plant.

Each morning, the cooks at this mom-and-pop lunch deli in Kapaa begin steaming their laulau (salted slabs of fatty pork) by 3 a.m., giving the taro leaves encasing the meat enough time to cook. (Otherwise, enzymes in the leaves can cause an itchy throat.) The process takes six hours, which makes fresh laulau hard to come by one reason the 100 bundles the cooks make each day are typically sold out by noon. For customers with a sweet tooth, kulolo, a traditional Hawaiian delicacy made from baked taro corms, is available on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, and comes straight from two nearby companies: Kapaa Poi Factory and Hanalei Taro and Juice Co. The dessert has a sticky-smooth consistency akin to Jell-O crossed with pudding.

At his restaurant within the Andaz Maui at Wailea Resort, a five-star beachside hotel, chef Isaac Bancaco works closely with local farmers to shape his seasonally evolving tasting menu. Recently, local Asian influences have punctuated the menu, seen in dishes such as breadfruit hush puppies, a watermelon salad dusted with li hing mui (salted dried plums), or fried chicken served with a side of buttery cake and mochi. And Bancaco isnt shy about taking risks: One recent dinner featured a deconstructed Peking duck served whole, its heart topped with orange peel and shavings of aged paiai.

When this neighborhood diner won a James Beard Award in 2000, it was only the third restaurant from Hawaii to be recognized by the foundation after the upscale bastions of local cuisine, Alan Wongs and Roys. The award simply confirmed what locals already knew: that this cash-only no-frills institution in the heart of Honolulu had been a reliable source of local food, colloquially referred to by Hawaiians as grinds, since 1946, when its founder Helen Chock first opened her doors. Her grandson runs the place now, sticking to time-tested favorites like kalua pig and pipikaula short ribs, the bony strips of dried beef favored by paniolos, or Hawaiian cowboys. Less hyped but just as memorable is the creamy squid luau, a native Hawaiian stew made semisweet with taro leaves and coconut milk.

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Where to Eat Hawaiis Most Sacred Ingredient - The New York Times

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If youve ever brushed your teeth or swished some mouthwash, theyve been in your sight: the hundreds of billions of microorganismsmostly bacteriathat live in the average human mouth. Dangling from the hard palate, burrowed in the nooks and crannies of the tongue and intertwined in the plaque on teeth are the many hundreds of species that make up the human oral microbiome.

For most, the bacteria in your mouth seem largely an inconveniencecritters all mixed together in a smelly goo, that must be flossed, brushed or rinsed away to keep your breath pleasant and gums healthily pink. But for Jessica Mark Welch of the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, and Gary Borisy and Floyd Dewhirst of the Forsyth Institute in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the oral microbiome is a wonder. Far from a jumbled mess of cells, its a varied, ordered ecosystem that can reveal larger truths about the ways microbes interact with one anotherand how their interactions impact the environments they inhabit.

Charting the way microbes array themselves in the mouth could shed light on the ways communities of organisms organize themselves in a variety of ecosystems, the scientists say: from the pores of kitchen sponges to the surfaces within kelp forests. Understanding more about the microbial rules of engagement could help leverage microbiomes to improve health, or, more far afield, help solve technological challenges like making biofuel from switchgrass.

And of course, exploring the oral microbiome specifically can sharpen understanding of how some bacteria in the mouth keep us healthyas key actors in normal metabolismwhile others may be implicated in illnesses like gum disease, heart disease and cancer.

Mark Welch, Borisy and Dewhirst, who recently reviewed whats known about the geographic distribution of species inhabiting the mouth in the Annual Review of Microbiology, have used genetic analysis and fluorescent imaging to map the microbesfrom the chain-linked Streptococcus species that thrive on the tongue to the rod-shaped Corynebacteria that hang out in dental plaque to all the other bacteria that live among them.

Their work suggests that bacteria live in communities that are far more structured than previously believed. I think we expected more big wads of bacteria, says Mark Welch. What was really a surprise was to see how organized they were. It tells us a lot about how they are working together.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Jessica, you are a geneticist. Gary, youre a cell biologist. How did you end up studying bacteria in the mouth?

GB: We wanted to study microbiomescommunities of bacteriathe ways they organize themselves, and why that matters.

The mouth was not the first place we began. We started by looking in the natural environment, at microbes in a pond and in a marsh in Woods Hole. We also sampled the manmade environment: dollar bills, and the scum around the toilet bowl.

JMW: And what you find on the sponge in your kitchen sink! There are microbiomes everywhere, and they play an important role in ecosystems.

GB: But we realized rather early on that there was a big problem. When we collected our samples, we could see many individual organisms, but we werent really sure what we were looking at. The genomics database for most environments was sparse. No one had systematically sequenced the microbes we were seeing, so it was hard to identify them when we sampled them, much less understand the ways they worked together to make ecosystems.

And studying the mouth solved that problem?

GB: Yes. One reason for going to the mouth was the existence of this superb database that our coauthor Floyd Dewhirst and his colleagues at Forsyth had developedthe Human Oral Microbiome Database, which catalogs the genomes of hundreds of bacterial species found in the mouth. A lot of the organisms we would see if we started collecting bacteria from the mouth for our research were already identified and cultured, and the genomic information was being curatedall of this provided the foundation for the imaging work we wanted to do.

Also, from a craven perspective, it seemed it would be easier to get money to support this work if we did something related to humans.

JMW: Another thing that makes the mouth a fantastic environment to study is that the different microbial communitiesthe bacteria that grow on the different surfaces in the mouthare so different from one another.

And yet theyre all in the same mouth, experiencing the same saliva, the same immune system, the same daily eating and sleeping schedule. Youre controlling for many of the factors that might influence the community. You can really compare the influence of the surfaces theyre living on, and their location in the mouth.

So what is this landscape of the mouth? Who lives where?

FD: The Human Microbiome Project defines nine sites in the mouththe tongue, palate, tonsils, sub- and supra-gingival plaque on teeth, the keratinized gingiva, the buccal mucosa, the throat, and saliva.

And surprisingly, even though your tongue touches the roof of your mouth, if you rub a Q-tip on either spot I can tell you with 100 percent certainty which surface you just sampled. The organisms living on your tongue are a very different community from whats on the roof of your mouth.

Why are they so different?

JMW: From the point of view of a bacterium, it matters what kind of surface youre living on. The teeth are solid, theyre always there. If you can root yourself onto them, youre not going to get dislodged unless someone pushes you off with a toothbrush or something. Bacteria such as Corynebacteria precipitate calcium from saliva. Its thought that they turn into that calculus that your dentist scrapes off your teeth. They grow very slowly, but they thrive by gluing themselves to their surface.

But if youre on the cheek cells, which shed pretty frequently, you have to bind quickly and grow rapidly. The fundamental limit on the length of time you can be bound to your surface and remain in the mouth is likely to be one of the factors that really structure the bacterial community. Streptococcus do well on the cheeks. Theyre the first to show up, they grow quickly and then they move on.

How many microbes are in the mouth?

FD: We dont really know the number of bacteria in an average mouth. But there are something like 1011 [100 billion] organisms per gram of plaqueso were looking at a large number.

What people usually talk about is how many species are in there. The Human Oral Microbiome Project identified a little over 700 different species of bacteria. (There are also fungi and viruses.)

About 400 of the 700 bacterial species are much more common in people than the others. And were you to take a swab of the cheek and sequence, sequence, sequence until you saw everything you could, thered probably be somewhere between 200 and 300 organisms. They would be distributed almost on a logarithmic scale, with the most common organism making up 10 percent of the population, the second organism 5 percent, the third just 2 percent and very rapidly, by the time you get to the 50th, youre down to 0.1 percent of the population. Theres this long tail.

Since we eat and drink, we take in all of the other microorganisms from the planet. A splash of sea water, some dirt on your spinach. Eventually, if you sampled enough people, enough times, every microorganism on the planet could show up in somebodys mouth.

GB: You could say the mouth is almost like an open sewer but that may take it too far. Only some of the organisms really take up residence and live there on a regular basis.

JMW: Dental plaque and the surface of the tongue are among the densest microbial habitats on Earth. Bacteria are pretty much wall to wall in there.

I thought bacteria was what plaque was. Theres other stuff in there?

JMW: The bacteria secrete stuff.

GB: Its called the extracellular matrix, or extra-polymeric substance

JMW: Or slime! Plaque is a biofilmbacteria adhered to a surface, embedded in a matrix of their own making. And biofilms are cool. Bacteria behave differently in a biofilm. There are parts of their metabolism they only turn on in a biofilm, and they tend to be more resistant to antibiotics and changes in the environment. A lot of the material in dental plaque biofilm is DNA, which is interesting. Do the bacteria die and spread their DNA all over the place?

What led you to start making fluorescent images of the colonies formed by the bacteria?

GB: We had a gap in our understanding of microbiome organization. DNA sequencing gave us a catalogue of bacterial genomes, but it had a big limitation: You have to grind up your sample to get the DNA, and in the process you lose all the spatial informationwho is next to whom.

This had been a missing piece of the jigsaw puzzle of understanding microbiomes. We realized we could develop imaging tools to see the members, in their habitat, in as close to their normal arrangement as possible.

Why is that so important?

JMW: If you can see who a bacterium is next to, then youre more likely to understand whom theyre interacting with. Thats important because if we want to recognize what an unhealthy microbiome isand maybe figure out how to shift it into a healthier statewe need to understand how the bacteria work together. If theres a particular microbe you want to get rid of, you need to know what else is there next to it, helping it grow or ready to take its place.

GB: Consider a watch (before they became digital). You have so many springs; you have so many wheels; you have a glass surface; you have a metal back; you have a couple jewels. But how does the watch work? Having the parts list is not sufficient. You have to know how the parts fit together, and how one affects another. With DNA sequencing were given the parts list, but were not told how they work together. If you want to understand the function you have to know the structure.

What do your images show?

JMW: Vast differences between the structures and make-ups of different parts of this oral ecosystem. For instance, if you look at images of dental plaque and of a microbial community on the tongue, theyre just completely different.

The plaque is characterized by a shape of bacterial community we call a hedgehog, organized around Corynebacteria (in the image, these are the magenta-purple filaments that radiate out from the center.) We think the Corynebacteria are the foundation of community, acting like the coral in the reef or the oak tree in the forestcreating the habitat that other organisms then inhabit at characteristic positions. The ring of bacteria weve colored green that you see around the outside of the structure are Streptococcus, and they stay in the aerobic zone, exposed to oxygen. They appear to be creating a low-oxygen zone in the interior thats been occupied by different bacteria.

But if you look at a microbial community scraped from the surface of the tongue, you see a gray coredead human epithelial cellswith other bacteria forming these very dense communities growing outwards and expanding together.

FD: With the bacteria in the plaque, its almost like you take your fingers and intertwine themalmost every neighboring cell is a different species. But on the tongue, you have these big chunks of blue or red or another color, with cells favoring proximity to cells of the same species.

And this overarching structure has a function in the mouth, presumably?

JMW: Right. Looking at the spatial organization of bacteria in the mouth tells you which microbes are directly attached to the host, and which have the most opportunity to interact with it and its metabolism.

We know that some bacteria in the mouth participate in our nitrate metabolismhow we take in nutrients from food, which can actually modulate blood pressure. If you consume a diet that is rich in nitrate, rich in green leafy vegetables, it will lower your blood pressure a little bit, but not if you use antiseptic mouthwash. In my opinion that might be one reasonand this may be going out on a limbwhy we, as the host, allow the bacteria to grow to such density. We have a reason to let them do that.

Researchers are trying to learn more about the ways microbes are implicated in periodontitis (gum disease) and caries (cavities). A common mouth bacterium known as Fusobacterium nucleatum seems to be involved in colon cancer. Its famous among oral microbiology people because it binds to everything. If its attached to harmless Streptococcus, it can evade the immune system and enter the body through the cheek cells, and it probably gets into the colon just by being swallowed.

GB: Some bacteria provide a service to the host, but some turn against us. If we drink a lot of sugary beverages, bacteria that like the sugar thrive, and produce acid that creates cavities. If these get into our bloodstream, they can cause serious disease, such as heart-valve infections. Its like a garden. When plants arent growing where they should, we call them weeds, even though in other places theyd be just fine.

JMW: When we ask volunteers to give us their dental plaque, we ask them to please not brush their teeth for 24 or 48 hours before we take our samplesand we have to ask them whether they have valvular heart disease. It can be especially hazardous for people with valvular heart disease to let these bacteria build up in their mouths.

So yes. These bacteria can provide a benefit to us, but they can hurt us too and if we want to fight these pathogens we have to understand structure. A microbes behavior depends on where it is. A lot of times research is conducted on a single bacterium, in culture. But that bacterium is going to act differently if its next to another bacterium. We need to study both together if we really want to understand what theyre doing in the wild. If we figure out which are next to each other in the various locations of the mouth, we know which ones to put in the petri dish.

Scientists have suggested that different parts of the mouth have different bacterial communities for some time. But people still like to sample saliva to measure bacteria in dental plaque. Its easy. But saliva is a mixture of bacteria from different sites in the mouth and, it turns out that they are mostly tongue bacteria, not plaque. The notion that there is location-specific structure hasnt sunk in, which is one reason we wanted to write the article.

Where else can scientists look to better understand microbe communities in the human body?

GB: Most people are already looking at the gut. But probably every part of the body will have a distinctive microbiomethe ear, the nose, the belly button, the vaginal tractand interesting structures.

JMW: I've been trying to flip this around the other way, looking at where else in the worldbeyond the human bodyyou can find interesting spatial structures like those in the human mouth.

Its taken me full circle back to marine organisms. Kelp and other macroalgae are similar to the mouth, in a way. Theres a fixed surface thats nutrient-rich, and immersed in flowing water, and that promotes structure in the community.

Kelp is an ecosystem engineer. It is important as habitat for fish and other organisms and for regulating the transfer of nitrogen and carbon. Were interested in the degree to which the bacteria might be needed for this. How much does the kelp act by itself, and how much does it require microbes to do its work? Analyzing whats going on in the human mouth might get us closer to an answer.

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By Studying Mouth Bacteria, Scientists Hope to Learn the Secrets of Microbiomes - Smithsonian.com

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NEW BUFFALO, Mich. (WNDU) - In 2021, the Michigan Department of Transportation said they hope to repave a few miles of U.S. 12 from the state line to Red Arrow Highway, going through New Buffalo.

Commonly known as a "road diet," they want to reduce the number of lanes from four to three.

"Which will be a nightmare during the busy holiday seasons, or should I say summer season," resident John Gorny said.

At a meeting Wednesday, MDOT representatives talked with community members about why they feel this proposed project is necessary.

MDOT said safety is their No. 1 priority.

"It gets that left-turn traffic out of the flow of traffic. So, we are reducing the number of crashes by probably two-thirds," MDOT spokesperson Nick Schirripa said.

MDOT said in the last four years, there have been 157 crashes on this stretch of U.S. 12. They said two-thirds of those crashes would not have happened if there had been three lanes.

MDOT also said the lane reduction will provide wider shoulders, a buffer between cars and pedestrians, will help eliminate weaving in and out of traffic lanes, and will help reduce side-street delays.

In a four-lane section, MDOT said emergency responders have to negotiate traffic. With a road diet, however, they can use the turn lane.

This proposal is not a done deal, as they are still in the planning phase.

"We wanted to get some community feedback. Certainly there are some things these folks know working and living here, just because we are not here every day," Schirripa said.

"But in fact, I was lectured to, and a lot of statistics were thrown about," Gorny said.

MDOT said they have been planning this resurfacing project long before the Marquette Greenway Project, which is a trail connecting New Buffalo to Chicago.

"Creating a safer, efficient roadway was the catalyst for the road diet concept. When that idea became public and other organizations started talking with us about it, that's when the idea of adding the Greenway as a partnership came to be. So, there is certainly an opportunity to work together with the folks on the Maquette Greenway, but it was not a catalyst for this project," Schirripa said.

The proposed repaving project would cost $2.4 million.

Continue reading here:
MDOT meets with community members, proposes to repave a strip of U.S.12 - WNDU-TV

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Many people today feel as if they need to cultivate and perfect work-life balance. Is there really such a thing? More importantly, even if there is, do you really need it?

Assuming that you work way too much, and that it negatively impacts your relationships, your health and your hobbies, then yes, reigning in your work schedule seems an appropriate and healthy move.

That said, here's my experience with coaching clients who work too much: They are often inefficient they do not prioritize well.

When I say "inefficient," I simply mean that their ability to perform their role takes an inordinately long time. Why is that? Are they capable enough? Are they qualified, not qualified or overqualified? How about you? Wherever you sit on this spectrum, you can still fail to accomplish what you need to in an efficient and appropriate amount of time.

Here are some common causes of inefficiency:

Micromanagement: For leaders and managers who micromanage, the message you send to the team is that you need to know everything in order to do your own job (and feel comfortable or confident). Micromanagement adds a lot of hours to any schedule (yours and others') due to two people the person with the actual functional responsibility and the person watching over them being required to make progress. You end up out of balance at work because you spend time doing things that others are paid to do.

Reliance on standing meetings: Some research has shown that employees spend, on average, 62 hours in meetings each month, and half of those hours are considered to be a waste of time. What if meetings were shorter? What if you became super discerning about exactly which meetings require your talent and input, and only then do you attend?

Pride in working at the same pace as everyone else: To me, it seems odd that many work cultures include an unwritten and unspoken rule that "if you want to advance, you had better arrive before the boss and leave after the boss." If your boss works an absurdly high number of hours each week, then you end up in a difficult predicament: Work even longer hours or limit possible advancement.

There exists a third option, which includes working to change your culture to a meritocracy, where you're revered for the results you create rather than given a badge of honor for staying really late every day.

The Real Question To Ask To Enjoy Both Work And Home

When considering how to pursue a healthy work-life balance, could it be that we are pursuing the wrong thing? Let me explain.

Let's say you wanted to improve your diet. If you could eat only super healthy, low-fat, delicious food every night for dinner, would you feel the need to "balance" that with nights where you eat junk food? My guess is that most of us would naturally run toward healthy and delicious choices every time.

Let's also say you wanted to adopt a learning and growth platform that exposed you to all kinds of new opportunities to expand your skills, interests and hobbies, and that it was fun. Would you require couch potato weekends to watch TV and "balance out" too much learning?

In my experience, assuming that we need or want balance essentially leads us to adopt a corrective strategy for the wrong outcome. What if, instead, you simply engaged in activities that you're passionate about, skilled in, interested in and have the energy for?

If this were the case, what would you pursue more of? Would you do more activities with your family? Would you dive into your work more because work feels like play, or are you dying of boredom and required to spend long days at work?

A client in Seattle holds a simple life philosophy that he employs every day: Have fun at everything I do or enjoy the exit.

When I asked him how that looks when he goes to a boring or contentious Thanksgiving dinner, he didn't flinch: "My one brother and sister-in-law host every fourth year, and it's always horrible. My wife and I always have a plan B ready, and if argumentative relatives start talking about politics, we simply exit and go to the movies."

Life is too short to participate in activities that suck the life out of you. If your work is one of those activities, the responsibility to transform your relationship with work is yours alone. If you work long hours to avoid loneliness, conflict or unhappiness at home, the responsibility rests with you alone to change your home life.

Make Your Simple Declarations

What if you made some very simple declarations about the passion and enjoyment of your work, as well as declarations about the rest of your life? What might your life look like if you absolutely loved your daily work, and you loved the people you work with and work for? Would you need to balance that out or limit it?

How about the rest of your life? If you make simple declarations that redesign aspects you don't like, you may find that you have no need to balance your life with your work because you'll likely enjoy every moment.

You simply have to meet the challenge of loving what you do so you won't have any need for balancing your time spent doing it.

Here is the original post:
Do You Really Need Work-Life Balance? - Forbes

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The struggle to return taro to ancestral fields is a part of a larger battle over questions of stewardship and sovereignty in the islands. Since July, activists have rallied at Mauna Kea, the great dormant volcano on the Big Island of Hawaii and the highest in the archipelago at nearly 14,000 feet. A sacred place, home to the gods in Hawaiian lore, it was part of the Hawaiian kingdoms crown lands, transferred to the United States upon annexation. Since 1968, it has been leased to the University of Hawaii to serve as the site of astronomical observatories. Thirteen major telescopes stand on the peak, and another, the Thirty Meter Telescope projected to be the largest visible-light telescope in the world, able to peer further into space and cosmic time than ever before was set to begin construction this summer, until protesters said no more.

Thousands have blocked the access road to the summit, waving the native Hawaiian flag a kahili (royal standard) and crossed paddles against stripes of yellow, red and green and asking for an end to what they see as a half-century of mismanagement of the mountain. Some go further, saying that the government never had a right to lease the land because it was stolen in the first place; they fly the state flag upside down, an international signal of distress. Its not about the telescope, says Dean Wilhelm, the executive director of Hookuaaina, a nonprofit on Oahu that uses taro cultivation as a means of empowering youth and building community. Its about a continuum of disregard for the Hawaiian voice, in the name of progress.

Taro farmers across the islands have sent poi to feed the protesters, in solidarity. For a number of young farmers, growing taro has been part of learning and earning their Hawaiian inheritance, whether they are kanaka maoli or kamaaina. Note that embedded in the word aina, land, is ai, which means food in general but is also specific to poi. Almost every ancient tradition around the world has its roots in honoring the aina, the land that feeds us. Penny Levin, a taro farmer on Maui and the executive director of the nonprofit E Kupaku Ka Aina, which helps restore degraded lands to ecological health and abundance, says, Behind the sacred is often the practical.

ISLANDS, AND THE people who live on them, must be resilient, vulnerable as they are to the whims of nature, alone and far from help in an impartial sea. Today, there are around 600,000 Americans of Hawaiian heritage a dramatic revival from fewer than 24,000 a century ago nearly 300,000 of them living in the islands and making up more than a quarter of the population. While part of this may be because of a change in the census allowing respondents to choose more than one ethnic origin, it also speaks to newfound pride in identifying as kanaka maoli. (Wilhelm remembers his Hawaiian mother telling him that she tried to keep out of the sun as a child, worried that her skin was already too dark.)

The native language, banned from instruction in public schools until 1986, is now studied and spoken at home in nearly 20,000 households, according to the census most recent American Community Survey, and traditions long suppressed and then caricatured for tourists like hula, criticized for its immodesty by missionaries and forbidden from public performance in the early 19th century by Queen Kaahumanu, a Christian convert are flourishing. Reppun says, Hawaiian culture got buried, like Haloa the name of the Sky Fathers buried child, who gave life to taro. Now its growing back.

But according to researchers, only around 60 heirloom varieties of taro are left out of an estimated 300 to 400 precontact farmers call them kupuna kalo, using the Hawaiian term for elders and theyve been largely replaced by photogenically purple Maui lehua, a sturdy hybrid of two Hawaiian strains, Lehua maoli and Moi. The ascendancy of a single variety brings risks. If the standby falls victim to an accidentally imported disease or fails as the climate shifts, you need backups. Attempts at genetic modification have been met with resistance, because for Hawaiians, taro is a member of the family literally, not metaphorically, just as to Catholics the sacramental Communion wafer is not a symbol but in fact the body of Christ. Crossbreeding is accepted, but there was an outcry when the University of Hawaii at Manoa was granted patents in 2002 on three new hybrids, which would have required farmers to sign a licensing agreement and presented the shocking notion that taro could somehow be owned; the patents were later rescinded.

And with less diversity comes a dwindling in flavors and textures. Even color has been lost: Poi can be a wide range of hues, including blue, yellow and pink, a shade once reserved for the alii (royalty), but an entire generation, raised on store-bought poi, has only ever known purple. Gone, too, are the names of the old taro, each with a story behind it, some really rascally, some poetic, says Levin. On a couple of acres in Waihee, on Maui, Levin tends more than 50 heirloom varieties; shes gained intimate knowledge of how to nurture each plant. If you pay attention, they teach you, she says.

More:
On Hawaii, the Fight for Taros Revival - The New York Times

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Its a sunny, autumn September day. Lines of small orange cones and strings of red flags line the trees surrounding the soccer stadium at Saint Martins University. Slowly, but surely, parents, coaches and event officials meander toward the finish line and clock set up on a red-tinted track, their shadows continuing to elongate in the evening sun.

Everyone waits for the first runner from the Ramrock Classics boys 5-kilometer race to appear.

Some know exactly who will lead going into the final stretch.

Across the facility, ribbons lead a rugged path from a meadow onto the track. From the finish lines flank, Bryce Cerkowniak, standing 5-foot-10, places a foot onto the track. He has about 300 meters to go until the finish line.

For the first 200 meters, its just him and the track. His short strides increase as his arms continue to pump and his strides get longer.

The small crowd begins cheering.

With a final push, Cerkowniak leans through the finish line and the timer, his legs slowing his body from the sprint 15 minutes, 36 seconds and first place.

Yelm junior Bryce Cerkowniak leads the pack by a lengthy amount at the 3A South Sound Conference Championship. For the first time, Cerkowniak placed first at the league race.

Not bad at all.

Just as Cerkowniak begins catching his breath, a North Thurston runner enters into the final stretch. With a final push from his deep strides, Samir Amin brushes through the finish line, high-fiving Cerkowniak and moving off the track in the process.

Both are juniors at their respective schools and have forged a friendly rivalry as the South Sound Conferences top runners. Amin joins Cerkowniak on the side of the track and the two commence a casual conversation, each of them congratulating Yelms Ryan Lange, then Kelan Herness as they pass through the finish line. The four young athletes smile, recounting the course.

They stay on the side of the finish line, cheering on runners as they enter onto the track and throwing high fives out toward finishing runners. The 20th man finishes, and the boys keep the cheering strong. Cerkowniak may have finished first, but it was the talk of sportsmanship that lingered on as the crowd of young men grew.

Its a scene that has been repeated again and again this year as hard work and dedication have propelled Cerkowniak to the front of the pack and title contention.

An eager Bryce Cerkowniak runs on a cleared path after last winters snow storm.

The road that brought Bryce Cerkowniak to the forefront of Yelm cross country running isnt one explained by natural talent and physique alone.

If youve driven around downtown Yelm at all within the last two years, youve probably seen him either early in the morning or in the afternoon; a scrawny, short-haired boy running the sidewalks that grid the small town.

His focus is forward. His shoulders are broad. His strides are short but consistent.

People drive past. Angie Cerkowniak, Bryces mother, said this is something hes kind of known for around town.

Hes almost a local celebrity, she said, noting that people will often tell her I saw Bryce running today.

And while many have seen Bryce Cerkowniaks entranced glare in transit, you cant help but believe his stature as a local celebrity might be true. Just a few years ago, Cerkowniak was a talented, impressionable freshman at Yelm High School. Now, hes possibly one of the best runners in the schools history.

A junior this year at Yelm High School, Cerkowniak is competing for the state 3A cross country championship title after placing first at both the 3A South Sound Conference league and West Central District championship meets.

While he may not be the favorite to take state this year, he, his coaches, fellow athletes and a small support group disagree. They believe he has what it takes to go for gold and clinch a massive upset on the course this November in Pasco.

Yelm Middle School track and field coaches Art VanVeen, right, and Laurel Robillard talk with a young Bryce Cerkowniak during a track meet. Cerkowniaks parents say the two were instrumental in encouraging him to run cross country in high school.

Last year, Cerkowniak placed eighth at state and is currently the third fastest 3A runner in Washington.

Cerkowniak twice broke the schools 5-kilometer boys record as a sophomore and this year as a junior, lowering it down to 15:22, which still remains his best time. Last spring for track and field, Cerkowniak twice broke the boys 3,200-meter school record.

Most recently, Cerkowniak clinched a first-place finish at the West Central District 3A Cross Country Championships 5K race last Saturday, Nov. 2. Cerkowniaks eyebrow-raising finish helped propel the Tornados to a fourth-place finish, qualifying them for state.

For a program like Yelm, coaches say runners like Cerkowniak only come around once in a blue moon.

Dan Baker, who coaches the girls cross country and track and field teams, discussed Cerkowniaks success last year after first breaking that 38-year-old 3,200-meter record during track season.

This is my 21st year coaching track here. There have not been a lot of kids at his caliber, Baker told the Nisqually Valley News last spring. Its not a surprise that hes doing well Hes got natural racing smarts.

Over a slice of pizza and surrounded by cross country athletes during an after-practice team get together at Bertoglios Pizza, head boys coach Alex McIntire and Justin and Angie Cerkowniak, Bryces parents, explain why his story is an important one to tell. Simply put, great things follow when you put in consistent, focus-driven work.

In previous interviews with the Nisqually Valley News, top Yelm runners such as senior Jacob Barnert and junior Kelan Herness have highlighted Cerkowniaks will to lead by example and his dedication to make the team tighter as a group shorten the teams spread.

Earlier this season, Herness said he believed it was Cerkowniaks leadership that would propel Yelm into its best season yet.

McIntire said Cerkowniak is a hard worker, but isnt one to showboat despite his success.

He came into my room the other day and he put all these lines up on the white board and says Guess what this is? Thats a map of the state course. He has it memorized, he visualizes it every single day; what its going to look like, feel like to win state, McIntire said. Hes got his goals written above his toilet seat so its the first thing he sees when he wakes up and the last thing he sees when he goes to bed.

In the restaurant, Cerkowniak is quiet but doesnt mince words.

Recounting the story, Cerkowniak, sporting a medal from the last track and field season and with pizza in hand, smirked at the claim.

Its actually on my desk. He just wishes I put it on my bathroom wall, Cerkowniak said. I wanna have the state championship. I sit at my desk every day and do homework, basically. So I see it every day, so it keeps it in my head, keeps it fresh so I remember what my goals are.

Stringent routine drives Cerkowniaks day-to-day.

The Yelm junior wakes up every day around 5:30 a.m. After bagging up his lunch that he prepared the night before, he heads out to the high school parking lot to meet McIntire for a 2 and a half mile run.

After school, he heads to practice where more workouts ensue. This is where Cerkowniaks friends are. Over the years the team has become closer, he said, if not for the countless hours they spend every season running than because of the frequent team dinners and activities their parents will host.

After practice, Cerkowniak gets home, takes his dog Krypto out, and then hits the books. On the weekends, hell usually take it easy, but hell make sure to run every day.

More important than the runners routine is the diet. Cerkowniak, like many of his friends on the team, keeps a consistent diet on most days, including leading up to a meet. Before class, the Yelm junior will usually down an egg, meat and cheese burrito to cap off his run. For lunch, its usually a black-forest ham sandwich with pretzels.

Even while driving across the country during vacation this summer, Cerkowniak wouldnt give up on his daily running routine. Hed constantly be looking for routes to run during downtime.

I think it was kind of cool because it gave me something to do. I run in Yelm every day, its the same loop every day and on the weekends and the offseason. Its nice to get out, find something new, Cerkowniak said.

To say hes dedicated could be an understatement. But running, as a sport, is something thats developed into an addictive passion. Last summer, it was reported that he ran upwards of 640 miles in preparation of the 2019 season.

Im just proud of his dedication to it. We never tell him, Hey, you better get out and run. Its him. Hes self motivated with it, father Justin Cerkowniak added.

McIntire didnt believe in the hype Yelm Middle School track and field coach Art VanVeen and other athletes were trying to feed him on Cerkowniak.

As a freshman new to cross country, Cerkowniak showed potential but didnt blow anyone away when he finished 75th in state.

I didnt realize fully the type of runner that Bryce could be until his track season freshman year, McIntire said. Bryce really worked toward being good. I wouldnt say its totally talent. I mean, he has a lot of talent but he really put in a lot of work right away.

In the months following the 2017 cross country season, Yelm lost one of its top runners, then-sophomore Logan Miller.

In Millers absence, Cerkowniak worked a tough training regiment going into the track and field season. McIntire said Millers departure left something of a hole for Cerkowniak to fill as the Tornados top runner.

He came out and he ran 10 seconds off the school record as a freshman. So thats where you start thinking, OK. Theres some real talent here, McIntire recalled. He works hard. He ran every single day that winter, did not miss a day. And hes got his journal to prove it.

As McIntire took the helm of head boys cross country coach, he began to refocus what he wanted his athletes to take away from running a love for it.

In the summer of 2018, as school let out, McIntire took a group of six boys to Glacier National Park to work out goals and teach his boys, especially young Bryce, how to love the sport of running and work through the pain.

I think Bryce loved to win, he loved to be competitive. I dont know if hed learned how to love to run at that point yet. So, we just got out in the mountains and ran for four days. And that really, I think, was the kind of spark he needed to say, I actually like doing this, McIntire recalled. He just has a really good fundamental understanding of the bigger picture. I think a lot of athletes kind of struggle to see the why of doing everything. And he got it pretty quick.

McIntire said he knew Cerkowniak was a different breed of runner after that summer.

Going into last years cross country season, McIntire said he wanted to build off of Cerkowniaks confidence and turn to competing fiercely at the state cross country meet. McIntire said he also wanted to make sure that he was building a solid foundation for Cerkowniak to look to his junior and senior years for the state title.

Cerkowniak ran about 50 to 60 miles a week going into the season.

After a record-breaking season and taking eighth at state, McIntire said he began to visualize Cerkowniak taking state his junior year.

Going into state this year, Cerkowniak is ranked in at third in the state. McIntire said the beauty of the sport is that even the best runners can have tumultuous days.

Nobodys shooting for 3rd. Nobody says I want to be 3rd at state. No, you want to win. So thats what we were geared towards after that sophomore year. It was now we need to start training like a state champion, McIntire said.

Cerkowniak will find challenge in two superb eastside runners this weekend; North Central junior runner Leif Swanson and 3A state champ favorite Stanford Smith, a senior from Kamiakin who will undoubtedly be leaving everything he has on the Pasco course as he finishes out his high school career.

The Yelm boys cross country team will run in the 3A Washington Interscholastic Activities Association State Cross Country Meet Saturday, Nov. 9, at Sun WIllows Golf Course in Pasco.

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Hard Work and Dedication: The Road That Brought Yelm's Bryce Cerkowniak to the Top - Nisqually Valley News

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Abstract and Introduction Abstract

In recent years, testosterone replacement therapy (TRT) has received significant media attention, and the rate of testosterone use has increased notably. A reported association between testosterone use and increased occurrence of myocardial infarction and stroke prompted the FDA to issue a safety bulletin in 2014. Clinical hypogonadism is the only FDA-approved indication for TRT in men; it is not approved to treat age-related low testosterone. Although it is not indicated, TRT is often recommended to improve sexual function, bone density, body composition, muscle strength, mood, behavior, and cognition. The literature on the effectiveness of TRT for various conditions is largely mixed; therefore, current data on appropriate and potentially inappropriate use are important for pharmacists to keep abreast of and discuss with patients.

Recently, the use of testosterone replacement therapy (TRT) has received a lot of media attention. Although its use is growing, there is much debate regarding TRT's risks and benefits.[1] From 2008 to 2012 in the United States, spending on TRT increased from $1 billion to $2 billion, and from 2003 to 2013 there was a fourfold increase in the rate of TRT in men aged 18 to 45 years.[2] In 2013 and early 2014, two studies reported an association between TRT and increased occurrence of myocardial infarction and stroke, prompting the FDA to issue a safety bulletin on January 31, 2014.[3] This article will discuss appropriate TRT use, available formulations and cost, side effects, trends, and the pharmacist's role in patient education, including counseling points.

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Testosterone Replacement Therapy: Controversy and Trends - Medscape

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Advancements in medical technologies have brought new challenges to sports regulators, especially the International Federations. One of the newest battlefields is transgender athletes.

Back in February, now-former marathon world-record holder Paula Radcliffe (GBR) sounded the alarm quite clearly, telling the BBC:

Right now, transgender women are not a threat to female sport. But you would be naive if you thought that, by not putting in any rules, it couldnt come to that at some point in the future.

People will manipulate this if there is an opening there to make money and win medals and weve seen the lengths people go to, the lengths Russia went to cheat in sport.

Absolutely, any transgender men or women should be able to access sport; it just depends which category.

The International Olympic Committee adopted rules in 2015 that are now outdated and has not been able to come to a consensus on new regulations as yet. But that has not stopped the International Assn. of Athletics Federations (IAAF, soon to be World Athletics) on its own path.

Moving forward after the Court of Arbitration for Sport upheld its new regulations on women with differences in sex development the Caster Semenya case the IAAF has now taken the lead in the transgender area, and working with other federations.

In a forthright approach to the issue, the IAAF hosted a meeting in Lausanne (SUI) on 19 October that included not only scientific and legal experts, but also the International Paralympic Committee and the International Federations for golf, tennis and rowing.

A report on this International Meeting on Transgender Eligibility in Competitive Sports was issued 12 days later and outlined with clarity a process which could be used for regulating trans-gender athletes who want to compete as female. Highlights:

2. Each sport is different with regard to the physical attributes that distinguish male from female performances and with regard to their policy preferences for classifications. Rules or regulations intended to accommodate trans athletes according to their gender identity should be sports-specific and designed by the relevant international federation. So that the eligibility standards remain consistent with the best available evidence, such rules or regulations should always be considered living documents, to be updated according to the latest scientific knowledge.

3. It is widely recognised that testosterone (T) distributes bimodally among male and female populations. T is also the primary known driver of the performance gap between males and females. Consequently, while acknowledging that testosterone is not the only physical basis for the performance gap, serum T has been found to be an acceptable proxy to distinguish males from females for sports purposes.

4. If a federation decides to use serum T for this purpose, in order to be consistent with the biological rationale for the female category, and based on current data, rules or regulations on trans womens eligibility for that category should adopt a fixed threshold at or below 5 nmol/L. Consistent with the fact that healthy female T levels are typically in the range from 0 to 1.7 nmol/L, it was noted that the typical medical target serum T for trans women who choose such intervention is well below 5 nmol/L.

For those who followed the Semenya case, the reference to 5 nanomoles per liter of blood is familiar: its the same level to which the IAAF now requires women with differences in sex development to meet to compete in events from 400 m to the mile. The transgender proposal would apply to all athletes wishing to compete in the female classification.

The report also noted that as with the Semenya case, there is also a time target to reduce high testosterone levels so as to create a level playing field for transgender athletes to compete as women:

The minimum interval between the achievement of the target serum T and eligibility for competition should be tailored for the purpose of each sport, and possibly also for events within a sport. Considering currently available scientific knowledge, an interval of at least 12 months remains reasonable; more may be appropriate depending on the sport and event.

These concepts werent chosen randomly, or based on simply guessing. In addition to the scientific testing on testosterone, most of this approach was modeled after the successful defense of the IAAFs regulations that were challenged by Semenya. Theres no doubt that a legal challenge will be thrown up against such rules as they are adopted; those regulations which will be upheld by the Court of Arbitration for Sport are those which are as narrowly-drawn as possible to achieve the desired effect of fair competition.

The IAAF issued its own regulations for transgender eligibility, approved by the IAAF Council in Doha (QAT) in October and effective as of 1 October 2019. The 21-page document requires those wishing to compete in the female division (in any event) to maintain serum testosterone levels of 5 nmol/L for a period of a year. The regulations note that typical womens testosterone levels are 0.6-1.68 nmol/L vs. normal male levels of 7.7-29.4 nmol/L.

But even as all this was going on, a new study was announced in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, in which a Swedish research team some of whom have worked with the IAAF tested the impact of a moderate testosterone increase on athletic achievement in young women.

The findings were that a modest, 10 mg treatment of testosterone cream increased serum testosterone by 378% from 0.9 nmol/L to 4.3 nmol/L and an 8.5% increase in running performance was observed. Thats substantial and continues to confirm the crucial role of testosterone in improved athletic performance.

The IAAF is leading the issue and the impact has already spread beyond the federations attending the Lausanne conference. On Monday (4th), the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) confirmed that it is pleased by the consensus obtained by the working group and The UCI shares the conclusions reached by the participants, who included representatives of transgender and cisgender athletes. The conclusions notably state that if a Federation decides to use serum testosterone to distinguish between male and female athletes, it should adopt a maximum threshold of 5nmol/L for eligibility for the female category. It plans to issue guidelines which can be adopted for use in 2020.

The UCIs statement is especially important given the current debate inside the cycling community following the second consecutive World Masters Sprint title won by Canadas Rachel McKinnon, a transgender female, in late October.

McKinnon says she is compliant with the IOCs 10 nmol/L regulations, but the firestorm about her status on social media makes it clear that new regulations will be just the start not the end of the debate.

There was a time, not long ago, when the IFs worried mostly about setting up event, publishing competition rules and trying to promote their sports. Now, the IAAF is leading the way even ahead of the IOC in some areas in organizing scientific programs both in research and in anti-doping and integrity enforcements.

There is a lot of criticism in track & field circles of IAAF chief Sebastian Coe and his Monaco-based headquarters team, about the recent World Championships in Doha (QAT) and about the standing of the sport internationally. But in the lab and in turning up the pressure on doping, they deserve credit.

Rich PerelmanEditor

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LANE ONE: IAAF taking the lead in transgender regulation, working with other IFs on testosterone levels - The Sports Examiner

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Back in the 1960s, the second wave of feminism was making big strides in the push towards birth control and female reproductive rights. Finally, women, specifically in married couples, were legally allowed to take birth control when the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Enovid, the first legal oral contraceptive, according to Our Bodies Ourselves.

Following that, female birth control became widely available not long after its creation.

Since then, birth control and contraceptives have made major improvements. Women are now offered various forms of birth control. Planned Parenthood lists all the options currently available: the implant, IUD, shot, vaginal ring, patch, sponge, diaphragm and obviously the pill.

The whole push around the movement for birth control and reproductive rights revolved around women. Meaning much of the responsibility to not get pregnant falls on women. All men have to worry about is making sure they have a condom and maybe being allergic to latex, but that problem has been solved with the creation of non-latex condomsa man complained and the problem was solved, hmm.

Since men do not have the same kinds of birth control forms, they also do not have to worry about the side effects associated with them.

While on birth control, women face side effects such as tender breast, mental health changes, headaches, cramps, nausea, weight gain and bleeding between periods, to name a few as listed on Planned Parenthoods website.

In addition to side effects, women also have to worry about the costs associated with birth control. Planned Parenthood states on their website that, without insurance, the pill could cost over $600. One of the more expensive options of an IUD could be over $1,100. Thankfully, with my own insurance, mine is $0, but that is not always the case for everyone.

Meanwhile, all men have to worry about is buying a box of condoms. A box of 36 Trojan condoms on Walmarts website was $15.47. It sure is a lot more cost-effective for men.

With all this in mind, why has there not been mass production of male birth control? Is it because of the notion that women should be more responsibleeven though it takes two to tangoor that men are or would be unwilling to take birth control?

Actually, in the 1970s, clinical trials for male birth control began.

Male birth control works slightly different than female birth control. Planned Parenthood describes female birth control as seeking to thicken the mucus on the cervix to stop sperm from joining with an egg by stopping ovulation. Without ovulation, there are no eggs present to join with sperm.

Recent research done by Christina Wang, Mario P. R. Festin and Ronald S. Swerdloff noted that the method [of Hormonal male contraception] is based on the use of exogenous testosterone alone or in combination with a progestin to suppress the endogenous production of testosterone and spermatogenesis.

They also noted the effectiveness of two studies in the 1990s. These two studies used testosterone enanthate, an intramuscular (IM) injectable preparation or a shot.

These two early landmark studies provided strong evidence that when spermatogenesis is suppressed to yield very low sperm output by the administration of exogenous androgens, contraceptive efficacy can be as high as female contraceptive methods, the report said.

Male birth control essentially tries to stop the production of sperm.

Side effects of these and more recent trials can be to blame for why there has not been mass production of male birth control. Both the previous study and one conducted by Giulia Gava and Maria Cristina Meriggiola in 2019 noted that common side effects included pain at site of injection, acne, coughing after injection, and mood or behavior changes.

In addition to side effectsdid they forget that womens birth control has them too, yet we still take it because they outweigh getting pregnantlack of funding for research is in part to blame. Although, this lack of funding falls back onto the un-acceptance of the side effects associated with male birth control.

In 2016, Vice reported that researchers had to stop a study on male birth control despite its 96 percent success rate because too many participants dropped out after experiencing side effects like mood swings and acnemood swings and acne, welcome to a teenagers everyday life.

If we could mass-produce a male form of birth control and men in our society were willing to use it, then we could see a more equal role in family planning between men and women. Because at the end of the day, it takes two to have sex and women should not have to bear the brunt of practicing safe sex.

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We need male birth control and we need it now - UNCW Seahawk

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A Labor of Leave

I havent had sex since my last breakup, and Im all lusty. I really like this guy, but he seems to have some intimacy issues. We went on a coffee date, and the chemistry made things go further than I would have wanted or expected (making out like crazy in the car). My friends keep reminding me to build trust and friendship before sex. But can you really go backward? Like, is it possible to just hang out and chat once things have gotten hot and heavy?

Lustbucket

A nice, thick pane of bulletproof glass between two people is an underappreciated chastity helper, which is to say, in a perfect world, youd plan your dates around one of you getting a job in a check-cashing place or getting arrested and held without bail.

Theres a tendency when youve initially gone a little too heavy into the heavy petting to be all: Oh, well cats out of the bag. Lets just go straight to the sex dungeon. However, for women especially, having sex right away can lead to a sort of psychological blinding to their sex partners shortcomings.

Women seem more prone to getting attached when they have sex. This is thought to result from surging oxytocin, a hormone associated with emotional bonding between mothers and children, as well as lovers. Oxytocin is released in both men and women through cuddling, kissing, and especially through orgasm. However, in men, having sex also sets off a big blast of testosterone. Testosterone goes all nightclub bouncer on oxytocin, blocking it from getting to its receptor. So just as a womans going all melt-o about a guy, if the guy has no pre-sex emotional attachment to her, his neurochemistry is prodding him to say something sweet and romantic, like Thanks for the ride! Have a great life!

In other words, the bulletproof-glass suggestion isnt all that outrageous. Its a form of precommitment, a strategy by economist Thomas Schelling that involves preparing in advance to make it difficult for you to break a promise or duck a goal. Incorporating precommitment could mean only scheduling lunch dates in restaurants and only on days when you have a work meeting right afterward. Another idea is getting to know each other over the phone more than in person with the caveat that you only do it in relatively public places, where turning FaceTime into PenisTime is likely to lead to, um, jail time.

Fade to Bleh

Im a very obsessive person. I went on one date with this guy, and it was immediately apparent that hes emotionally unavailable and broken. I deleted his number but soon dug it back up. I texted, but he never responded. I know hes bad news, but I still think about him constantly. Its especially bad when Im trying to go to sleep. How do I stop these intrusive thoughts?

Besieged

Its like that spinning teacup ride, with Satan as the carny: Wanna get off? Too bad!

Youre doing your best to avoid thinking about the guy. Unfortunately, theres a problem with that. Research by psychologist Daniel Wegner on the paradoxical effects of thought suppression suggests our minds have something in common with a defiant two-year-old, meaning that telling yourself not to think about something gets your mind doing exactly the opposite: thinking about that thing with a vengeance.

This is just how the mind works. When you tell yourself not to think about something, its an immediate fail. The mind sweeps around to monitor how well youre doing at not thinking about it, which of course involves thinking about whatever youre not supposed be thinking about.

Helpfully, Wegner and his colleagues found a possible way to stem the flood of intrusive thoughts: distraction. This requires thinking of something positive and unrelated to the thoughts youre trying to suppress. Even a red Volkswagen the example they used in their experiment could do the job.

Whats more, psychologists Jens Forster and Nira Liberman found that you can keep your mind from constantly bouncing back to a thought if you shift your focus: admit that not thinking about it is hard. As I explain in my book Unf---ology, Removing the need to patrol your thoughts removes the mental sticky note that tells you to keep going back into Thoughtland with a flashlight to see how well youre doing at it.

Finally, because the mind cannot multitask, meaning think two thoughts at once, it might be helpful at bedtime to tire yourself out reading aloud or following a guided meditation on your phone: Youre walking down a beach youre looking out into the waves and um oops! Just remind yourself that not thinking about something is hard and yank your mind back to Swami Doodah after you inevitably picture yourself holding the guy down and drowning him in the ocean.

Got a problem? Write Amy Alkon: 171 Pier Ave, #280, Santa Monica, CA, 90405. E-mail AdviceAmy@aol.com, visit @amyalkon on Twitter, and listen to Amy's weekly podcast at BlogTalkRadio.com/amyalkon.

Order Amy Alkon's book Unf---ology: A Field Guide to Living with Guts & Confidence (St. Martin's Griffin, 2018).

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The Science Advice Goddess: November 7, 2019 - River Cities Reader

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