Author: James Martin
“Add two to three drops of lavender oil to your regular detergent or fabric conditioner before you pour it into your washing machine.”Lemon oilLemon is well known for its strong cleaning properties, so it’s no surprise lemon oil is just as versatile.Yasmin said: “Lemon oil provides a clean, citrus scent without any heavy chemicals and is used to remove bacteria and fungi around the home due to powerful hygienic properties and the ability to attack harmful microorganisms.“Due to its acidic roots, it works well in all-purpose cleaners for kitchens and toilets, leaving surfaces sparkling. Lemon oil could also be used…
Comment on this storyCommentEver since Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered his attack on Ukraine last year, the West has faced a conundrum: How do you support Ukraine in its heroic self-defense without tripping over Putin’s “red lines” and ending up with Russia and NATO shooting at each other directly? Put differently: How do you help Ukraine win without starting World War III?This week, the US, Germany and France took a big step forward in probing that evolving question. All three announced that they’d give the Ukrainians new kinds of tanks. The Americans will send armored fighting vehicles called Bradleys. The Germans…
CNN — Health experts voiced concern Wednesday over the rapid growth of the new Omicron sublineage XBB.1.5, advising the public to stay informed but not alarmed as they work to learn more. Over the month of December, the percentage of new Covid-19 infections in the United States caused by XBB.1.5 rose from an estimated 4% to 41%. “That’s a stunning increase,” Dr. Ashish Jha, the White House Covid-19 response coordinator, wrote in a Twitter thread. Officials at the World Health Organization shared similar thoughts Wednesday. “We are concerned about its growth advantage,” said Maria Van Kerkhove, an epidemiologist who is…
Comment on this storyCommentIt’s harder to argue that your parents should leave you alone when you’ve just smashed up the car. As digital assets lost more than $2 trillion in value and a string of prominent ventures blew up in 2022, most notably the FTX exchange, the debate over cryptocurrency regulation shifted sharply. The turmoil also heightened the stakes in a battle that had already been brewing in Congress over which of the nation’s top market regulators, the Securities and Exchange Commission or the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, should take the lead on crypto oversight. Separately, the SEC has made…
Comment on this storyCommentIt was long ago — in 1906 — that German psychiatrist Alois Alzheimer first connected a case of dementia to abnormal deposits in the brain. Modern researchers have largely proceeded on the thesis that treatments for the disease named for him would need to clear away these aberrant clumps, consisting of a protein called amyloid, that clog patients’ brains. After many disappointing performances by amyloid-targeting drugs, including one controversially approved by US regulators in 2021, a treatment called lecanemab became the first to unambiguously slow the progression of Alzheimer’s disease in a large trial reported in late…
Comment on this storyCommentRepresentative Kevin McCarthy seems likely to be elected the next speaker of the House, perhaps by Friday night. We don’t yet know the details of what he promised rogue Republicans, some of whom opposed him for 13 votes. McCarthy was still a couple of votes short when the House adjourned Friday afternoon for a few hours. But the very fact that the dissident Republicans appeared to secure significant concessions lets us know what’s most important: This is going to be an extremely dysfunctional House, where any small group from the majority party knows that tantrums will be rewarded.Republicans already had…
Comment on this storyCommentUS President Joe Biden promised a more compassionate immigration policy than that of his predecessor, Donald Trump, who moved in myriad ways to restrict the flow of newcomers to the country. An unprecedented surge of migrants crossing the US southern border, however, has reignited the long-running debate in the US over immigration and tested Biden’s relatively welcoming approach. In an effort to cope with the increase in arrivals, his administration Jan. 4 announced a new policy expanding opportunities for people from four countries to come to the US directly from their homelands while restricting their ability to…
CNN — The death of a participant in a clinical trial of an antibody treatment for Alzheimer’s disease, which is now under consideration by the US Food and Drug Administration, may be linked to the experimental drug, a new report shows. The research letter, published Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine, shares details about what happened to the participant in the open-label extension phase of the trial of lecanemab. In an open-label extension, there is no placebo arm; rather, all the participants get the medication in question because an earlier part of the trial has shown so much…
Comment on this storyCommentThis article is a preview of The Tech Friend newsletter. Sign up here to get it in your inbox every Tuesday and Friday.Columnist Geoffrey A. Fowler and I are colleagues and buddies, but we live in technologically opposite homes.You can learn from our bickering over who’s right.In Geoff’s house in San Francisco, the thermostat, light switches, smoke alarms, doorbell, speakers, baby monitor, garage door, air pollution monitor, sprinkler controllers, meat thermometer, clock, TV and an electric bicycle are connected and can be controlled with an app or his voice.In my New York City apartment, I flip on…
CNN — In the cold months, many people may need something extra to keep warm, whether that’s because severe weather knocked out power or you just need some help to heat your home. A space heater may seem like just the fix, but experts warn that they can pose safety risks. On average, fires caused by portable heaters cause 65 deaths and 150 injuries a year, said Lori Moore-Merrell, administrator of the US Fire Administration. Here are six factors that fire experts say can make all the difference in keeping warm while staying safe with a space heater. The leading…