All posts tagged: traditional

Traditional Chinese exercise routine reduces blood pressure as much as brisk walking

Traditional Chinese exercise routine reduces blood pressure as much as brisk walking

Published by Jenni Sidey

The Baduanjin exercise has been practiced for hundreds of years as a way to achieve relaxation and improve mental and physical health through gentle movement. Recently, scientists completed a large clinical study to evaluate whether performing Baduanjin has any cardiovascular health benefits. According to the results, researchers found that practicing Baduanjin reduces blood pressure to a similar degree as brisk walking in people with high blood pressure. The reduction in blood pressure occurs after three months of practicing Baduanjin. The reduction is also sustained for 12 months following cessation of practice. These findings were published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. High blood pressure remains one of the greatest modifiable risk factors for cardiovascular disease. Physicians often recommend exercise to lower blood pressure. However, many patients find it difficult to maintain a regular exercise regimen due to the need for specialized equipment, gym access, or structured exercise programs. Graphical abstract comparing Baduanjin, self-directed exercise alone, and brisk walking. (CREDIT: JACC) An Accessible Model Baduanjin provides a feasible alternative model for achieving these …

Investors Overreacting To Starlink’s Threat To Traditional Telcos; Goldman Says

Investors Overreacting To Starlink’s Threat To Traditional Telcos; Goldman Says

Published by Jenni Sidey

Talk of space-based data centers has suddenly become a major conversation on Wall Street. One key driver is Elon Musk’s merger of SpaceX with his AI venture, xAI, aiming to eventually build “orbital data centers” at scale. With a potential IPO later this year, the space industry – first in low-Earth orbit, then on the moon – will be center stage for years to come. Goldman analysts, led by Andrew Lee, hosted a webcast titled “Space – Datacentres Opportunity and Telecom Risk,” featuring Justin Hotchkiss (Associate Partner), Gregor Eichler (Principal), and Federico Torri (Partner) from TMT consultancy Altman Solon. The webcast conversation looked ahead to a future in which space-based data centers could become a reality. Goldman’s telecom analysts and tech consultants discussed two major ideas: Space data centers: Not yet deployed, but could become a reality in the near term. The advantages are low-cost solar power in space, easier cooling, no property costs, and no permitting issues. One big hurdle is the need for cheaper rocket launch costs and a lightweight cooling system. If …

Minneapolis Native communities fight fear of ICE with traditional ritual and prayer

Minneapolis Native communities fight fear of ICE with traditional ritual and prayer

Published by Sam Flores

(RNS) — On Sunday (Feb. 1), a group of dancers in dresses affixed with metal noisemakers performed an Ojibwe traditional healing dance known as the jingle dress dance to the heartbeat of a leather drum in downtown Minneapolis. The swishing of the dancers’ dresses sounded like light rain as more than 100 Minneapolis community members followed them to the sites where two local residents, Alex Pretti and Renee Good, were killed by federal agents in recent weeks. At each site, the group prayed, sang and danced in a ritual meant to promote healing and solidarity. Nicole Matthews, executive director of the Minnesota Indian Women’s Sexual Assault Coalition, who helped organize the dance, compared the ceremony to a “medicine dance.” “It was a community collaboration of Native women working together,” said Matthews. “We were there as a community to come together and bring healing to that place where, you know, significant trauma occurred.” In Minneapolis many Native people say they are reluctant to leave their homes for fear of being detained by federal ICE agents. “We …

Browser-based attacks hit 95% of enterprises — and traditional security tools never saw them coming

Browser-based attacks hit 95% of enterprises — and traditional security tools never saw them coming

Published by skeptic

Your web gateway can’t see it. Your cloud access broker can’t see it. Your endpoint protection can’t see it. And yet 95% of organizations experienced browser-based attacks last year, according to Omdia research conducted across more than 1,000 IT and security leaders. Still, three campaigns in 12 months are making the threat more concrete. ShadyPanda infected 4.3 million users through extensions that had been legitimate for seven years. Cyberhaven’s security extension was weaponized against 400,000 corporate customers on Christmas Eve. Trust Wallet lost $8.5 million from 2,520 wallets in 48 hours. None triggered traditional alerts. The pattern is consistent: Attackers aren’t exploiting zero-days or bypassing perimeter defenses. They’re operating inside trusted browser sessions — where traditional security tools lose visibility after login. “Let’s be honest, people are using a browser the majority of their day anyway,” said Sam Evans, CISO of Clearwater Analytics. “Having the major security component in the browser has made our lives very simple.” That convenience is exactly what makes the browser the highest-risk execution environment enterprises still treat as infrastructure, not …

Infrared vs. Traditional Sauna: Which Is Actually Better for You?

Infrared vs. Traditional Sauna: Which Is Actually Better for You?

Published by Jenni Sidey

Infrared saunas have become incredibly popular, even though they aren’t really saunas at all. To the untrained eye, they basically look the same as what you’d expect a sauna to look like—wood paneling, benches, some guy who just had to bring his phone inside—and both actually share a bunch of the same health benefits. But why does every gym, wellness club, and boutique HIIT workout studio suddenly seem to have these new-wave sweat boxes in their locker rooms? For one, it’s a matter of practicality. Infrared saunas give off way less heat, thus making the surrounding area a much more habitable place for those who’d prefer not to partake. But, more importantly, the wellness industry loves a shiny new thing—especially one that conveniently doesn’t give club members the tools to burn down the building. And, as it turns out, infrared saunas actually have some unique benefits of their own. (For one, they’re less likely to overheat your iPhone, not that we’d know anything about that.) Infrared vs. traditional sauna: What’s the difference? Technically, there are …

The best electric heaters in the UK, from traditional stove-style units to modern smart models – tested | Interiors

The best electric heaters in the UK, from traditional stove-style units to modern smart models – tested | Interiors

Published by Sam Flores

Are you in need of a stopgap stand-in for your central heating? Or perhaps you’re looking for an efficient appliance to heat a small space. If so, investing in one of the best electric heaters will rid the cold from your home. The Guardian’s journalism is independent. We will earn a commission if you buy something through an affiliate link. Learn more. Electric heaters range from compact, fast-acting fan-powered models to oil-filled radiators and wall-mounted panels. Some also have smart functionality, so you can ask Alexa to turn up the heat, and other advanced features such as air purification and adaptive heating. But which are best? I cosied up to some of the most popular models from makers including Beldray, Russell Hobbs, Everhot, Dreo and Mill. Here’s my roundup of the best electric heaters, including models that are cheap to run, high-powered and capable of warming a large room, alongside smart electric devices with app-assisted functionality. At a glance £206.75 at Argos £49.68 at Amazon £118.98 at Amazon £1,199 at Cooks & Company £169 at Amazon …

Traditional seed cake recipe

Traditional seed cake recipe

Published by Sam Flores

I didn’t grow up with seed cake but love the lemony aniseed notes of caraway. If you’re keen on dark rye breads – often flavoured with caraway – you’ll like this too. I first had seed cake at St. John in London, served with a glass of Madeira (a fine pairing). Recipes for it appeared from the late 1500s but it really became popular in the Victorian age.   Source link

why the WHO has gone Goopy for traditional medicine

why the WHO has gone Goopy for traditional medicine

Published by Sam Flores

Both China and India have invested heavily in promoting their medical traditions at home and abroad. India donated $350m to establish a permanent WHO Global Centre for Traditional Medicine in Jamnagar in 2022 and largely funded the Delhi conference. China, meanwhile, has become the WHO’s single biggest funder now that the US has pulled out, promising investment of $500m over the next five years. Herbal medicine is a multi-billion-dollar industry in China and is used by at least 75 per cent of the population. While some elements of traditional Chinese medicine – such as acupuncture for chronic pain – have demonstrated benefit in clinical trials, large parts have also been debunked as pseudoscience. The use of animal products such as bear bile for pain relief and inflammation and rhino horn for everything from rheumatism and typhoid to “devil possession” do not just put patients at risk but fuel cruel and dangerous illegal wildlife trafficking. Politics over science? Even within the WHO, there is tension over what is being platformed at the summit. One senior official, …

Databricks’ Instructed Retriever beats traditional RAG data retrieval by 70% — enterprise metadata was the missing link

Databricks’ Instructed Retriever beats traditional RAG data retrieval by 70% — enterprise metadata was the missing link

Published by skeptic

A core element of any data retrieval operation is the use of a component known as a retriever. Its job is to retrieve the relevant content for a given query. In the AI era, retrievers have been used as part of RAG pipelines. The approach is straightforward: retrieve relevant documents, feed them to an LLM, and let the model generate an answer based on that context. While retrieval might have seemed like a solved problem, it actually wasn’t solved for modern agentic AI workflows. In research published this week, Databricks introduced Instructed Retriever, a new architecture that the company claims delivers up to 70% improvement over traditional RAG on complex, instruction-heavy enterprise question-answering tasks. The difference comes down to how the system understands and uses metadata. “A lot of the systems that were built for retrieval before the age of large language models were really built for humans to use, not for agents to use,” Michael Bendersky, a research director at Databricks, told VentureBeat. “What we found is that in a lot of cases, the …

Orthodox Judaism is making space for women’s religious leadership – even without traditional ordination

Orthodox Judaism is making space for women’s religious leadership – even without traditional ordination

Published by skeptic

(The Conversation) — When people picture a rabbi, they may imagine a man standing in front of a congregation in a synagogue. But “rabbi” means much more than that. For example, a rabbi could be a teacher, a nonprofit executive for a Jewish organization or a scholar of Jewish law – and, increasingly, some of those roles are held by Orthodox women. For decades, liberal denominations have permitted women to be ordained. Orthodox Judaism, however, has largely prohibited it. Yet attitudes toward women’s study of rabbinic texts is changing, leading some Orthodox leaders to conclude that women are qualified for rabbinic jobs. Israel’s chief rabbis – known as the Rabbinate, and historically seen as the top authority for the country’s Orthodox institutions – do not recognize women as rabbis or permit their ordination. But a significant change came in July 2025, when Israel’s High Court of Justice determined that women must be allowed to take the Rabbinate’s exams about Jewish law. The chief rabbis appealed the decision, but the court rejected their request for a …