Step 1: Sit at desk. Step 2: Get in shape
Being a physician is not really a desk job, but doctors must spend a fair share of their time sitting, yes? Dealing with recalcitrant EHRs or talking on the phone to insurers or PBMs? If you are one of these physicians, or if you have patients who spend a lot of time sitting at their desks and might need to get a bit of exercise, then we’ve got a multitasking tip for you.
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It came to us via one of our favorite websites, Sad and Useless. It’s the site that declares itself “the most depressive humor site on the Internet” and they’re offering up the “12 Best Exercises To Do At Your Desk.” It may not sound like much, but we think that the gang at Dunder-Mifflin would approve. And besides, who couldn’t stand to burn a few calories without having to leave the chair?
We won’t spoil your fun by going through all 12 – each one comes with step-by-step instructions and a helpful illustration or GIF – but here are just a few:
- Bending over backwards: “Agree to do something you don’t want to do. Spend twice as long as expected doing that thing. Hate yourself.”
- Fake laughter: “Hear a joke that isn’t even remotely funny. Open your mouth and make laughing sounds.”
- Bang your head: Feel the “pointlessness of your job overwhelm you” and then “bring your head forcefully down to your desk.”
Now, we here at LOTME are, of course [Bang!], highly skilled, professional wordsmithing humorists [Bang!], so when we tell you that this is a great workout [Bang!] … that this is a great workout [Bang!] … it’s great … uggh.
Wooooo. Feel the burn.
One order of mosquitoes, extra Crispr
What would it be like to have a barbecue in your backyard on a humid summer night and not get eaten alive by mosquitoes? If you’re like us, you probably thought you’d never see that day.
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Mosquitoes cause itchy bites, but, more importantly, they can carry dengue, malaria, yellow fever, and Zika virus. New research shows that protection from these diseases may be possible with use of the Crispr-Cas9 gene-editing tool, which could make humans invisible to mosquitoes by taking away their light-sensing abilities and, thus, their ability to find us.
“The better we understand how they sense the human, the better we can control the mosquito in an eco-friendly manner,” Yinpeng Zhan, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and the study’s lead author, told the New York Times.
After studying the mosquitoes and figuring out their hunting patterns, the researchers found that mosquitoes are attracted to dark spots more than white spots and used this to their advantage. After knocking out two of the proteins that mosquitoes need for vision – via Crispr – the little suckers could not distinguish the difference between the white and dark spots.
We’re sure mosquitoes don’t mean any harm – they’re just trying to survive and reproduce like any other species – but thanks to this new tool, gone might be the days of having to douse yourself in bug spray that smells like a mix of chemicals and melon.