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People frustrated with lockdowns need to read this ER doctor's COVID-19 journal entries

People frustrated with lockdowns need to read this ER doctor's COVID-19 journal entries
Jason Hill/Facebook

With protests around the country over pandemic lockdowns, it's clear that many Americans are frustrated—and understandably so. We're in a frustrating situation, where leaders and public health officials have to make impossible decisions based on constantly changing data, with terrible consequences resulting from every choice.

But some folks seem to be a bit unclear on exactly what these lockdowns have been preventing. In areas that haven't been hard hit, the measures feel like an overreaction. That's why we need to be reminded of the real, dire human toll this virus will take if allowed to spread. And not just in numbers, which are too easy to dismiss, but in stories that describe the reality of what can happen anywhere the virus is allowed to take hold.

Jason Hill, an ER doctor at New York Presbyterian Hospital in New York City, shared some of his personal journal entries during the peak of New York's outbreak. They offer a painful but beautifully crafted window into why we've been locking down and must continue to do what it takes to keep the spread to a minimum.

Jason Hillwww.facebook.com

Dr. Hill wrote on Facebook on April 15:

"Thanks for all the bday wishes. Several people have asked me about what it's been like in the ER with Covid. I'd done some journaling the last couple weeks. As I turn forty this is how my head, heart, and soul have been occupied.

Covid at 40.

The eyes stay with you. In peace time most of those we intubate are chronically ill, or profoundly confused, or unconscious and unaware of the world around them. Covid has changed the equation. Most of my patients now remain awake and alert until the end. These days the ER is permeated with frank conversations about death and dying and what a chance to live entails. It is a hard thing to tell a healthy and functional person who felt fine and well six days ago they may be dead in a day or two and humbly ask how aggressive they want us to be. A chance to live comes with the risk of dependence on life support and pain. The alternative is the guarantee of an imminent but peaceful death. I have never had more harrowing, more frequent, more brutally honest, more meaningful, more exhausting conversations in my life. Complete strangers open up to you in profound ways during such times and you can only hope both your expertise and your humanity serve them well. And the eyes stay with you.

For those I intubate, those who choose intubation, I often find myself having a final stare. After all the words are spoken, the decisions made, the medications drawn, the bed positioned, the tubes and drips and ventilators readied, there is a final stare. It is a stare of intention. It is a moment of humanity. It is a shared space, a hallowed space, the final moment of someone's awareness, possibly forever. It is a space where fear and hope mingle, where autonomy fades into trust, uncertainty into acceptance, and all they have left is placed firmly in your gloved hands. It's brief, and you're busy, and time is essential, but you find a few seconds to share this final breath. That stare lasts a moment. That stare lasts a lifetime. And the eyes stay with you.

I see them often in my mind, and although haunting I am glad to keep them with me. I warm my hands on the raw humanity inherent in such moments and they empower me to carry on. For carry on we must because the room is full of agony and sickness and fear that must be attended to quickly and humanely.

//

I am asleep before a long night shift. I awake to the sound of cheers and yells. To hooting and hollering. To the clanging of cow bells and the banging of drums. They yell and shout and scream to honor us. They shout from rooftops and ground floors and all the windows and balconies in between. I am asleep before a long night shift. It wakes me up. I am scared shitless. I think the building is on fire. I run around panicked and confused for several minutes. Why do the fire sirens sound like drums and cowbells? Do I even have a fire escape?? WTF is going on?? Oh. Ohhhhhhh. Ok. I get it now. My heart is still racing, but now I'm grinning. Thanks. I feel grateful…mostly.

//

Oxygen Rounds is a new term we have become all too familiar with. I have a hospital full of medications. Antibiotics and anti-virals and sedatives and vasopressors and steroids and opiates. But the only truly effective medicine we have is Oxygen. We blow it at high flow rates into people's mouths and nostrils, a crutch to help the lungs that are struggling and staggering. And it's in a shorter supply than I'd like. It flows forever from spickets on the walls, but we have many times more patients than spickets and even fewer rooms so an ever increasing number of patients on stretchers line hallways further and further from the spickets on the walls. We place portable tanks next to stretchers, but the tanks run out and we can't refill them fast enough. Once per hour, sometimes twice, I walk the halls, hunting for gauges approaching empty and hoping the cabinet holds a replacement. Invariably I find empty ones and hope it hasn't been empty long. Invariably someone is turning blue. It's no one's fault. it's everyone's fault. it's Covid's fault. And there just aren't enough eyes and hands to keep up. I mutter a promise to check three times next hour. I pull a step ladder from the utility closet and string plastic connecters end to end to end threading them from wall spickets through corrugated ceiling tiles to drop down above patients' heads in the hallway so they aren't reliant on a tank. It's hard to tell which knob goes to who, but at least it doesn't run out. It's a strange time when a step ladder becomes a more useful tool than a stethoscope.

//

I admitted four of my colleagues today. Four of them. They had the usual symptoms. A week or so of cough and chills, fever and body aches, fatigue and loss of smell. They stayed at home and took Tylenol and sipped chicken soup and wondered which patient they had gotten it from. They stayed inside and washed their hands and waited to feel better. But better never came. The cough worsened, they had trouble walking around their home without getting winded, and they knew all too well what that meant, so they came, each of them, not knowing the others were doing the same. I'm in a room with four chairs housing four colleagues with oxygen flowing into their four noses. I'm used to seeing strangers, people I care about because they're human, but a stranger still. I can maintain a detached distance. This is different. These are my friends and colleagues. These are the people I suit up with and go to battle beside. This is my team. I've had harrowing experiences beside them for years. They keep me sane and effective and capable. Together we've saved lives and lost lives and everything in between. But now they are on the other side of the curtain. Their coughs hurt my ears more, their fear becomes my fear, I check on the them to the point of harassment, can't help it, can't fix it, they're on a path I can't cure, can only support through. Can only stand beside them and hope. They try to reassure me, a strange role reversal that belies their strength. I well up with a deep respect. I well up with tears. The front line really feels like the front today.

//

The makers are my favorite people this week. Several days ago I intubated without a face shield. It was three in the morning and we had run out. There were simply more intubations than face shields and we had burned through the stash. But a patient came in and was suffocating in their own lungs and needed a breathing tube, so they got one, and they got one from me, and I did not have the proper armor. Today I stand in a room with hundreds and hundreds of face shields. They are pulled hot off the 3D printers like newspapers off a press. They are arranged on tables by volunteers who add elastic bands and attach shields to complete the ensemble. In the background the gentle hum of a dozen printers working around the clock is an echo of the thousands of engineers and designers, seamstresses and manufacturers, cooks and delivery workers and writers all contributing to the cause. Each shield is a person protected. Each volunteer is a soldier in the fight. I feel less alone.

//

Oxygen means something different in this new reality. In peace time an oxygen level below 95% is bad. An oxygen level below 95% on a non-rebreather face mask is terrifying. That's a no-brainer. That gets fixed quickly or that gets intubated. Everything is different now. We hang facemasks of oxygen on people with 85-90% saturations for days. They are on the edge of the cliff with one foot dangling and there they stay. Will they inevitably fall off? Are we helping or merely delaying? No one knows. Ventilators are in short supply, ICU beds are full, and ICU docs are tired. We're all tired. So we temporize, hoping a few will sneak by and not get intubated. Hoping someone doesn't fall off the cliff when we aren't looking. The monitors don't help. They are all beeping and blaring all the time from every direction. The background music of a pandemic. They only tell us what we know, everyone is sick. Only our eyes and experience can help us now. I take another lap around the ER to check the cliffsides.

//

I'm baking a mask tonight. My single use N95 has been on my face for days. The backs of my ears are raw from the rubbing of its straps and my nostrils are filled with the scent of fibers mixed with my coffee flavored breath. My mask bakes and bakes, sterilizing it and killing any viral hitchhikers that attached themselves today. I wish I could do the same for someone's lungs. It comes out warm and toasty and clean. It comes out safe. I set it on the windowsill to cool, like an apple pie from easier days. Worst desert ever.

//

All hands were on deck today. Elective surgeries have been cancelled and the surgeons and anesthesiologists and neurologists and orthopedists and urologists and rehab specialists and pediatricians have been deputized as ER and ICU docs. Urology attendings and shoulder surgeons are rounding with ICU teams, adjusting ventillators, and drawing blood gases. Pediatricians are seeing adult patients and monitoring oxygen levels. Outpatient docs are working in tents in front of the ER to decompress volume. General surgeons are going from room to room to room putting in Central lines and Arterial lines on our sickest patients. Anesthesiologists are running in to intubate. It remains busy. It remains overrun with sickness and suffering. But today we have more help. Today we have reinforcements. Today we feel like one big army devoted to one fight. Today it feels like maybe, just maybe, we can keep up.

//

Es El Fin. Today I'm a palliative care doc. This man is not doing well. This man needs intubation to survive. He's 67 and only speaks Spanish. He's healthy. He's dying. His oxygen is very low. His respiratory rate is very high. He's getting tired. He's suffocating in his own body. He needs to be intubated. He doesn't want to be intubated. He doesn't want to be on a machine. We ask if we can help call his family to say goodbye. He looks at us puzzled, somehow still not fully understanding. Esta Muriendo senior. Es el fin. This is the end. He gets it. He's stoic despite the tears. He's strong. If this disease attacked character instead of lungs he would have a fighting chance. We set up a video call with his family. He says goodbye. They say they love him in a dozen different ways. He touches the screen. A digital hand hold in a pandemic age. We make him comfortable. He's still drowning but he can't feel it. He says thank you before his eyes close. I can't help but wonder if he would have survived had he been intubated. The odds say no. The sense of defeat within me screams maybe. I try to remind myself this is what he wanted. That this is for the best. I quickly forget.

//

I give out more juice and blankets than I ever have. In peace time the ER is busy, always busy, but most people are not dying. Very few are dying, and even fewer are acutely and actively dying. The scourge of Covid has rewritten those rules. Everyone in the ER tonight is too sick to go home. Many are dying. Many will never leave the hospital. Many will never have a meal or a juice box again. In peace times I often can't be bothered to bring someone juice. It's not a priority. Tonight anyone asking gets juice. Even those not asking get juice. Often it's the only comfort I can provide. A small ease of suffering. A brief distraction from the fear. It may be the last juice they ever drink. Some nights it's the best medicine I have.

//

We had a patient tonight that impaled her hand with a crochet needle. Right through her hand. Simple stuff for us. Easy to take care of. Three of us ran over. Two more than was necessary. An orthopedist playing ICU doc was walking by. He ran over. He was excited. We were all excited. This was not Covid. This was something we could fix. We did it together. Eight hands to do the job of two. We removed the needle, help it up like a trophy, washed it off and gave it back. Our patient smiled, said thank you, and went home in one piece. It was the best we'd felt in days.

//

My colleagues are tired. The patients keep coming. The ER is wall to wall misery and mayhem. Only five people died on me today. Only five. But everyone there is dying to varying degrees and at various rates. The ER is a cross section of the disease. The well who will stay well. The well who will come back much worse. The sick who are stable. The sick who are crashing. It's all around us. It keeps coming in through the front door. It keeps coming in through the ambulance bay. And my colleagues are tired. We give oxygen. Everyone staying gets oxygen. Needs oxygen. We try antibiotics. We try antivirals. We try hydroxychloroquine. This week we use steroids. This week we limit IV fluids. This week we give blood thinners. Does anything work? Are we saving anyone or just supporting them as they go along a path pre-determined by the virus coursing through their insides? Is the inevitable inevitable? Some days we just feel like spectators, front row observers going through the necessary motions of a play whose final act has already been written. So much death. So much dying. And my colleagues are tired. We're all tired. And yet somehow, for some reason, I find there's no place I'd rather be. I leave the ER, the sun has come up and I walk around enjoying its warm tendrils. Its quiet. Stores are shuddered, streets are empty, and sidewalks are bare. It seems peaceful. Its an illusion. But I appreciate it. Time to go home. Time to recharge. Tired won't last forever. Covid won't last forever. And there is still plenty of fight in us."

Imagine this being your current reality, then imagine what it must be like to see people protest the measures that are keeping that reality out of other communities. We're not doing all of this for nothing. Yes, it's frustrating, but we face nothing but frustrating options at the moment.

Thank you, Dr. Hill, for sharing your experiences and for doing your best to save lives. Let's hope people see the warning in your words and act accordingly.

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Technology

Here’s how one nonprofit org is using Adobe to change the world

Adobe empowers nonprofits to fundraise, advocate, and further their missions.

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In 2024, it’s practically impossible to function as a nonprofit without the right digital resources. Nonprofits use computer systems and applications for things like education, fundraising, engaging clients, and communicating with donors. However, with limited funding and expertise, it's often difficult to get the digital tools they need to fully support their missions.

The planet needs nonprofit organizations, and nonprofits need better digital tools. For decades, Adobe has provided nonprofits with the tools they need to fulfill their mission—helping them with everything from social media advocacy to educational videos to graphic design. Now, Adobe is offering the pro version of Adobe Acrobat for Nonprofits, the most requested and comprehensive set of document and e-signature tools, for just $15 per user per year, which represents a 94% annual savings off the regular price. This will make it easier than ever for nonprofits to streamline business processes and increase their impact with engaging educational and fundraising assets – from annual reports, contracts and grant submissions to brochures and white papers.

Keep reading to hear more about how Adobe helped one nonprofit improve efficiencies and giveback potential – and how you can start using Adobe tools today for your organization.

A nonprofit success story

Albert Manero, a mechanical engineer and graduate of the University of Central Florida, founded Limbitless Solutions, Inc., as a passion project in a small lab. Today, Limbitless is celebrating its 10-year anniversary and has grown into an interdisciplinary team based at the University of Central Florida in Orlando that includes 50 interns with nine different fields of expertise. Their mission? To inspire and empower underserved communities through creative, accessible technology.

Manero and his team of experts create bionic, 3D-printed arms for children with limb differences. Combining visual storytelling with art and engineering, the Limbitless team wants children with limb differences to feel included and capable, while at the same time, able to express their personal identity more fully. Developing bionic arms covered in flowers or designed like Iron Man’s armor, kids with these bionic limbs can not only grip objects, hold hands and more, but can feel empowered to be themselves.

Using Adobe to make a difference

Limbitless, like many others, has utilized Adobe for Nonprofits offerings, which gives nonprofit organizations access to Adobe programs at a deeply discounted rate, including access programs like Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Express and Adobe Acrobat as well as Adobe’s 3D tools.

Adobe solutions are the oil that keeps organizations running smoothly behind the scenes. For the grant application and reporting processes, employees at Limbitless have credited Adobe Acrobat with helping the team secure funding and communicating clearly with donors and partners. With Acrobat, they’re able to create, edit, and manage PDF documents that look professional and polished. The company has also transitioned most of its internal documentation to digital formats using Acrobat. This includes everything from design blueprints, brand guidelines, intern contracts, and user manuals for bionic limbs.

Better tech for a better future

In addition to helping day-to-day operations run smoothly, Adobe has also helped bring Limbitless’ mission of inclusion and accessibility outside of office walls.

Using Adobe Express, the fast and easy create-anything app, Limbitless has been able to create quick how-to videos for young patients and their families that showcase how to use their bionic limbs, as well as a series of videos promoting STEAM (science, technology, engineering art and math) education. The company’s Operations, Advocacy, and Logistics team utilizes Express as well, developing content and visual assets for their social media accounts. Recently, Limbitless partnered with the Adobe Express’ Animate Characters team to create six unique, limb-different selectable avatar characters for their educational outreach and social media campaigns.

And Adobe is helping Limbitless empower kids with limb differences, too: Limbitless’ comic series, Bionic Kid, was created using Adobe Illustrator and features a superhero with limb differences who uses a Limbitless prosthetic arm. This inspired a fundraising concept initiated from the idea by a Limbitless prosthetic recipient Zachary Pamboukas, which has been used in fundraising efforts for more bionic arms and has already raised over $20,000.

Inside the organization and out, Adobe is enabling people to reach their full potential, contributing to better nonprofit organizations and, overall, a better world.

Learn more about the new Adobe Acrobat for Nonprofits offering and explore more ways Adobe can help your organization today.

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Joy

Someone asked if 80s kids really 'roamed freely.' After 40,000 answers, the truth is clear.

There is definitely some rose-colored nostalgia in these responses, though.

Photo credit: Canva, @othingstodo_com/X

Were 80s childhoods really as feral as they sound?

Ah, the nostalgia of an 80s childhood. If you've ever watched "The Goonies" or "Stranger Things," you've seen how kids of all ages were largely left to their own devices most of the time, parents playing a background role if any role at all. Children went on unsupervised outdoor adventures for hours upon hours, getting into just enough trouble to learn some lessons but not enough to die (usually).

But is that really what childhood in the 80s was like? Were parents really that hands-off? Did kids really roam around freely like the movies and stereotypes portray? Were people really not worried about what the kids were up to when no one knew where they were and no one had cell phones to check in?

Someone asked that very question and the overwhelming response pointed to a clear answer.

Yes, 80s kids really did have childhoods that are hard to imagine now

"Did parents in the 80s really allow their kids to roam freely, or is that just a portrayal seen in movies?" X user OThingstodo asked. Here are the top responses:

"Really. And it was awesome."

"Facts. We are the generation who raised ourselves. There really was a commercial that came on each night asking parents if they knew where their children were. We survived off hose water & anything we perceived as food. (Berries, fruit trees, etc) We were not allowed to sit inside.. if we tried, we'd get loaded down with chores. We truly were the feral generation.. we took no guts, no glory to new heights & feared absolutely nothing. It was amazing times that still, to this day, bring forth a rush of nostalgia at the smallest memory."

"This is so true. And Sometimes we just got to cook our own TV dinners. And our parents did not constantly have to engage us or make sure we weren’t bored."

"Allowed? We were not allowed in the house during the day. We had bikes and friends. There was 3 rules 1: don't get hurt 2: don't be brought home by the police 3: see that light? If it's on you're late and grounded."

"In the summer it was get home when the streetlights come on. Raised on hose water & neglect. It was glorious."

"I used to roam the sewer drains around town with my friends. Just a handful of us and some flashlights."

"Yep. We rode our bikes all over the place exploring reality. We also had unlicensed lemonade stands, and after we sold out, we’d ride up to the store alone to buy snacks alone. We had our own house keys, we stayed home alone after school, and we cooked for ourselves. No one freaked out about it either."

"We left the house after school and they wouldn’t see us until the street lights came on. Didn’t ask us where we had been or what we did either. We were raised on hose water and neglect in the 70’s and 80’s."

"Well into the 90s. They told us to be home for dinner by ___ or before nightfall. They didn't have a clue where we were or really any way of finding out. This was just the norm. ... then cell phones."

"It’s true. Realize that back then, there weren’t cell phones, video games, 24 hour kids TV, etc. You wanted to be with your friends & that was outside, even in winter. Your bike was your prized possession & while there were bad elements then too, it wasn’t like now. Sad."

That last point, "while there were bad elements then too, it wasn't like now" sentiment came up a lot in the responses. Let's dive into that a bit.

It's easy to look at the past through rose-colored glasses

For the most part, everything people said about those 80s childhoods is true, except this: The world was not safer back then. There weren't fewer "bad elements" and there wasn't less crime.

Around the year 2015, articles started coming out about how children were statistically safer than they'd ever been.

In fact, statistically, the 80s were less safe than now by pretty much every measure. Looking at violent rime statistics from 1960 onward shows that the 80s had significantly higher violent crime rates than we've seen in the 2000s. The idea that Gen X childhoods were carefree with nothing to fear is simply wrong. We just weren't aware of everything there was to fear.

Social media and 24-hour cable news networks put scary things in front of our faces all day every day, giving us a skewed perception of reality. And that's not just conjecture—according to Pew Research, Americans tend to think crime is rising even when it's going down. "In 23 of 27 Gallup surveys conducted since 1993, at least 60% of U.S. adults have said there is more crime nationally than there was the year before, despite the downward trend in crime rates during most of that period."

The folks remembering their free-range childhoods as blissful and safe seem to have forgotten that we started our days pouring milk from cartons that had pictures of missing children on them. A few high-profile abductions and murders of children caused a bit of a missing children panic in the U.S, leading President Reagan to sign the Missing Children Act in 1982 and the Missing Children's Assistance Act in 1984, which founded the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children.

But "high-profile" in the 80s meant a spot on the nightly national news and a headline in a newspaper. Most crimes were only reported locally, there as no "going viral online" and it was easy to avoid scary news if you wanted to. We live in a totally different world today, but not in the way people think. We're safer by nearly every measure, from car accidents to infectious disease to violent crime. But we feel less safe, which directly affects how we parent our children.

There was indeed magic in our blissful ignorance

There's something to be said for being unaware of every bad thing that's happening in the world. We may have been less safe in the 80s in actuality, but not knowing that had its perks.

The question is, can we put the genie back in the bottle? Is it possible to give kids an 80s-style childhood in the age of ubiquitous screens and parents being arrested for letting their tweens walk less than a mile from home by themselves?

Societal expectations of what kids can and should do have changed drastically, as have levels of anxiety and fear in general. Parenting styles have shifted toward more involvement and greater attachment, which isn't bad in and of itself but can be taken to an extreme. The neglectful parenting style of the past wasn't ideal and neither is the overprotective style the pendulum swung to.

If we could somehow find a way to give kids the joy of unstructured outdoor exploration of the 80s and the stronger parent-child connections of the present, we might just hit the sweet spot of raising healthy kids. Perhaps the next generation of parents will figure it out.

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Beautiful 'Star Trek' short film gives fans the Kirk and Spock farewell they truly deserve

Unification takes William Shatner’s Kirk on a journey through the afterlife to see Spock one last time.

OTOY/Youtube

Kirk and Spock, together again.

Even if you’re not into Star Trek, you’re probably aware of the legendary friendship (or more, depending on who you ask) shared between Captain James T. Kirk and Spock. It’s part of what made their separate deaths—Kirk’s being in the 1994 film Star Trek: Generations and Spock’s only being a thing mentioned in 2016’s Star Trek Beyond—so bittersweet for many fans.

But now, grieving trekkies can finally get some closure, thanks to a fan film that’s not only an epic, Easter egg-filled crossover spanning the vast canon of Star Trek, but a tearjerking love letter to the two characters who first made the show so special in the first place.

In 765874 – Unification, created by the VFX studio OTOY (Westworld, American Gods), we first see a well known Kirk quote written on the screen:

“How we deal with death is as least as important as how we deal with life”

Then Kirk (William Shatner’s face, but body doubled by actor Sam Witwer) appears, and travels through the afterlife running into a TON familiar faces (including Saavik, Sorak and Yor, to name a few) all leading to Spock (Leonard Nimoy, Lawerence Selleck) on his deathbed. Thirty years later, these two friends finally get the goodbye they deserved before departing the mortal plane forever.

- YouTubewww.youtube.com

Unification not only achieved amazing technical feats, blending CGI, AI, and practical effects, but also had William Shatner and Susan Bay Nimoy (Nimoy’s widow) serve as executive producers to help ensure accuracy. According to Screenrant, both Witwer and Selleck studied and mimicked Shatner/Nimoy's exact movements for Kirk/Spock, a physical performance enhance by a combination of physical and digital prosthetics.

The result? A ton of happy tears from fans.

“71 years old, I'm sitting watching with tears streaming down my face. Thank you.”

“The long overdue farewell we have waited far too long for. It's so nice to see that there are still people out there who understand Star Trek and are keeping it alive.”

“Who knew 9 minutes of Star Trek with no dialogue would be some of the most powerful!!”

Aside from the fan service of it all, people found the short film to be very a cathartic mediation on death.

“My mother died just after this past New Year’s Eve, and the last thing she said to me was , “Oh , hello “! This is so special to me thank you so much!”

“I am 71 and terminal. I pray that when my time comes, I can have my world's version of this experience. THANK YOU!!!!!”

“My father passed away a few weeks ago and I've been struggling to let my emotions out. This well and truly did it. Been sobbing away.”

Truly, there’s something here for hardcore fans and newbie trekkies alike. Kudos to all the makers of Unification, who boldly helped the legacy of Stark Trek live on in the coolest way possible.

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Pets

Sorry, Labradors. After 31 years, America has a new favorite dog.

The American Kennel Club has crowned a new favorite.

via Pixabay

A sad-looking Labrador Retriever

The sweet-faced, loveable Labrador Retriever is no longer America’s favorite dog breed. The breed best known for having a heart of gold has been replaced by the smaller, more urban-friendly French Bulldog.

According to the American Kennel Club, for the past 31 years, the Labrador Retriever was America’s favorite dog, but it was eclipsed in 2022 by the Frenchie. The rankings are based on nearly 716,500 dogs newly registered in 2022, of which about 1 in 7 were Frenchies. Around 108,000 French Bulldogs were recorded in the U.S. in 2022, surpassing Labrador Retrievers by over 21,000.

The French Bulldog’s popularity has grown exponentially over the past decade. They were the #14 most popular breed in 2012, and since then, registrations have gone up 1,000%, bringing them to the top of the breed popularity rankings.

The AKC says that the American Hairless Terrier, Gordon Setter, Italian Greyhound and Anatolian Shepherd Dog also grew in popularity between 2021 and 2022.

The French Bulldog was famous among America’s upper class around the turn of the 20th century but then fell out of favor. Their resurgence is partly based on several celebrities who have gone public with their Frenchie love. Leonardo DiCaprio, Megan Thee Stallion, Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez, Reese Witherspoon and Lady Gaga all own French Bulldogs.

The breed earned a lot of attention as show dogs last year when a Frenchie named Winston took second place at the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show and first in the National Dog Show.

The breed made national news in early 2021 when Gaga’s dog walker was shot in the chest while walking two of her Frenchies in a dog heist. He recovered from his injuries, and the dogs were later returned.

They’ve also become popular because of their unique look and personalities.

“They’re comical, friendly, loving little dogs,” French Bull Dog Club of America spokesperson Patty Sosa told the AP. She said they are city-friendly with modest grooming needs and “they offer a lot in a small package.”

They are also popular with people who live in apartments. According to the AKC, Frenchies don’t bark much and do not require a lot of outdoor exercise.

The French Bulldog stands out among other breeds because it looks like a miniature bulldog but has large, expressive bat-like ears that are its trademark feature. However, their popularity isn’t without controversy. “French bulldogs can be a polarizing topic,” veterinarian Dr. Carrie Stefaniak told the AP.

american kennel club, french bulldog, most popular dog

An adorable French Bulldog

via Pixabay

French Bulldogs have been bred to have abnormally large heads, which means that large litters usually need to be delivered by C-section, an expensive procedure that can be dangerous for the mother. They are also prone to multiple health problems, including skin, ear, and eye infections. Their flat face means they often suffer from respiratory problems and heat intolerance.

Frenchies are also more prone to spine deformations and nerve pain as they age.

Here are the AKC’s top ten most popular dog breeds for 2022.

1 French Bulldogs

2 Labrador Retrievers

3 Golden Retrievers

4 German Shepherd Dogs

5 Poodles

6 Bulldogs

7 Rottweilers

8 Beagles

9 Dachshunds

10 German Shorthaired Pointers


This article originally appeared last year.

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Internet

10 pieces of seemingly ridiculous advice that people swear works

Would you give any a try?

Photo credit: Canva

People spill 10 weird life hacks that actually work

People give advice on all kinds of things whether you asked for it or not. Sometimes the advice you receive is solid, well thought out helpful advice that comes from years of experience. Other times the advice makes little sense or was simply unsolicited and unhelpful. Then there's the kind that seems nonsensical but you try it anyway because you've reached a level of desperation you'd rather not share and much to your surprise, it works.

But wouldn't it be fabulous if you didn't have to reach the brink of desperation to know if some of ridiculous sounding advice actually worked? There are certainly going to be instances where it doesn't matter how well other people proclaim a thing works, not everyone will want to try it. But there are times when the advice feels so outlandish or cliché that you have to share it with others when it works as promised.

There's a plethora of seemingly ridiculous advice out there that actually does work...or at least some people swear it does. Here are 10 pieces of weird advice that may make you scratch your head but supposedly work.

Sleepy Go To Sleep GIF by Simian RefluxGiphy

1. Did you try turning it off and back on again?

It doesn't matter if it's your smart TV or your toddler, there's nothing quite as effective as turning the thing off and on. Feeling a little grumpy, take a nap. It's the human equivalent to unplugging something and plugging it back in or turning it off and on. Someone shares the time tested tip saying, "turn it off and on again. There is a reason that this works in a lot of cases, it's not just bullsh*t advice."

2. Using household items to solve problems works

You probably remember hearing as a kid using peanut better or an ice cube gets gum out of someone's hair. There are all sorts of little tricks to solve everyday problems with things you already have handy, like if your kid puts a bunch of oil in their hair–pretend they're a baby duck and whip out the Dawn dish soap. But there's more, one person explains, "Ketchup cleans brass. Melting a crayon into rusted threads gets the bolt out easily," before someone else chimes in, "and pepsi cleans everything, so long as you don't leave it in so long it melts."

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3. "Say cheese"

There's a reason customer service people sound so cheerful and it's not always because they love their job. The customer service representatives that make you feel like they're having a great day when you're calling about an error in your billing, they may just be hiding a secret–it's not cheese. Someone relays, "Smile when talking on the phone to someone. It can actually make you sound more friendly and approachable. The person you are speaking to should sense this and may respond to you better."

People confirm the validity of this advice with one saying, "Tried this in a couple of Interview phone calls and I can attest to it, IT WORKS," while someone else writes "If affects your own mood too and will often genuinely make you feel chirpier."

"Smile, even when you don’t feel like it. It sounds so fake, right? But the weird thing is, even forcing yourself to smile can actually trick your brain into feeling a little happier or more positive. It’s not a cure for everything, but it can definitely help shift your mood, even if it’s just for a moment," another chimes in. Pretty sure there's a song about it by Nat King Cole, too so there must be something to this smiling thing.

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4. Keys go in the refrigerator

Yes, keys go in the refrigerator not on the key hook...well that's if you don't want to forget your lunch according to one advice giver, "put your keys in the fridge with your leftovers when you're heading out. Haven't forgotten my lunch at home since starting this weird habit five years ago." Now that's a nifty little trick that your stomach may thank you for later.

5. You don't have to hang upside down to cure hiccups

A couple of the most common cures to hiccups is to hold your breath or hang upside down but there may be an easier more interesting way. While people have sworn by placing a piece of paper on your head as a cure for the annoying body glitch, someone shares a hack that works every time saying, "Got the hiccups? Drink water from the opposite side of the glass. Lean forward and drink upside down. Looks absolutely ridiculous but has worked for me every single time since my college roommate taught me this trick." Another person backs them up, "Can confirm. I’ve been doing this for years! Always take a lungs filling deep breath and hold it before looking ridiculous."

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6. "Make them tell you no"

There are many instances where people talk themselves out of something they desire because they're embarrassed or feel under qualified but one person offers solid advice, "'Make them tell you no.' It's great when you're not sure if you should apply for a job, go for a promotion or a raise, or do something you're afraid of. Don't be so worried about getting told no or failing, you'll surprise yourself."

7. Minding your business keeps you young

Advice so good it pops up multiple times in multiple places. If someone isn't being harmed then minding your business is free and does wonders for your life expectancy according to one person's grandfather, "My grandad lived to be 95. I asked him what the secret to a long happy life was. He told me to mind my own business."

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8. Unexpected invisible hairballs may be on the rise

Sometimes it's not years of wisdom that bring about odd advice that works wonders, advice from the mouth of a babe has an extraordinary success rate. "From my 7 year old daughter…I still laugh about it today. If you’re ever in an awkward situation with someone or need to just go away- you could always pretend to choke on something. I don’t know where this came from but it’s funny AND it works. You just run away to get a glass of water," someone adds.

9. Look out the corner of your eye

Our eyes are pretty amazing, especially when they work like they're supposed to but did you know about this advice for finding things in dim lighting? According to a commenter answering a prompt on weird advice, they claim our eyeballs have a secret superpower, "If looking for something in a low light environment, try to use your peripheral vision. I read about it in an old WWII manual about aerial combat at night. It has something to do with how eyes work. It has helped me many times over the years. For finding stuff in a darkened room, or outside in a field at night, not aerial combat."

Someone recalls the scientific reason this trick works, writing "if I remember what I learnt from school correctly, it's because rod cells, which are responsible for black-and-white vision and work fine in dim light, are more abundant in the periphery of retina compared to that in the centre."

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10. Just start something

There's a saying that "anything worth doing is worth doing badly." Meaning that if you're choosing between doing nothing and doing a poor job at something due to lack of energy, depression or absence of time, it's best to do something than nothing at all. Someone shared a similar piece of advice that they received from elderly southern relatives, "Somethin’ ain’t nothin’— taking 5 minutes to workout, clean, work on a big project, etc. is better than 0 minutes. We often think we’ve got to do 2 hours of rigorous work or it doesn’t accomplish anything."

Just get started and if you've never heard of these random bits of life advice give some of them a try if you'd like to see how they work out. If you have your own weird but effective advice, drop it in the comments to share with others.

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Third graders wrote these adorably persuasive descriptions for local shelter animals

A Pennsylvania teacher partnered with a shelter to create the purrfect writing assignment.

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Kids writing shelter animal descriptions is a win-win all around.

For kids, school assignments can often feel disconnected from the real world. Math story problems that ask how many pancakes could fit on a roof, for example, or essay questions about things they're just not interested in. For teachers, finding ways to engage students in learning in a meaningful way can be a challenge, but one teacher's approach to teaching writing shows how a little creativity and community-mindedness can create a win-win assignment for everyone.

Amy McKinney, a teacher in Pennsylvania, was teaching her third graders about persuasive writing. But rather than have them formulate an argument for an imagined audience, McKinney partnered with a local animal shelter to give her students an authentic audience to write for—and a super compelling reason to persuade them.

"Our class teamed up with an animal shelter to help their pets get adopted!" McKinney wrote on Instagram. "We were sent a short description and a photo of each pet. My students each chose one pet to write about and sent our essays to the shelter to display and post to their social media channels."

“My students’ engagement was tremendous!" she added. "They knew the work they were doing would make a huge difference in a pet’s life, so what normally takes us a couple of weeks to do, we completed in just days.”

Knowing that something you're doing could have a real-world impact is a strong incentive, no matter what your age, but considering how much kids usually love animals, it's no surprise the kids were into it. Animal shelters are always looking for ways to get furever homes for the animals in their care, so this assignment was truly purrfect.

The first-person (or first-animal) descriptions the kids came up with were cute and clever. Imagine seeing write-ups like these ones and trying to say no to the cute furry faces they go with :

Hi, my name is Peaches & all I want is a family. ADOPT ME PLEASE. I’m very sweet. I like to be petted. I have a unique color. I have built in highlights. Please can I have a family to love? The months here feel like forever. Obviously, I’m the best one of all.

Adopt me, please! I love other dogs! I’m Pete and I enjoy other dogs. To begin with, if you have another dog I’d be great. Second of all, I am only 20 pounds at 5 years old. I’m not a big dog so. You could probably lift me up. Lastly, I’m kind of shy but I’ll warm up. All I need is a little baby talk and some petting. Please adopt me. All I want is a family. Can’t you just help me?

Have you ever seen a dog as cute as me? HI, I’m Judd! I would love to be a part of your family. I’m super cute, I’m goofy, and love people. I would love to go with an energetic family and I’m wonderful. I was born on 5/25/2018. I’ve been in the shelter for about a year and I would love to go home with you. I want to go on adventures with a family! I love spending time with humans and I love running around. That is why you should adopt me. I’ll be waiting for you to come to get me!

Hi! My name is Julia. Have you ever seen such a cute cat as me? I would love to be in your family. First, I love head scratches. If you bring me home we could cuddle. Next, I am very sweet. I will come up to you to receive love. Last, I am energetic. I love running around. As you can see, I am a really great cat to have!

Don’t worry I’m not bad luck even though I am black! My name is Ursula. Please adopt me! First, I like to snuggle. I am nice don’t worry I won’t scratch! Second, I like head scratches. While we snuggle you can scratch my head. Most importantly, I am really small. When you need something you can’t reach, I’ll get it! Now you know you can adopt me.

Have you ever seen such adorable eyes and fur? My name is Bandit. I’ve been here too long. First would love a home to snuggle. If you bring me home we will cuddle. Next, I don’t enjoy being in the shelter. I don’t like being in a small cage. Last I am shy but enjoy being petted. I love getting scratched on the head. Obviously, I’m the best one!

The kids even drew pictures to go along with their persuasive descriptions, which made them all the more adorable.

Lots of teachers in the comments said they planned to contact animal shelters in their area and do something similar with their students. Here's to teachers thinking outside the box—and outside the classroom—to help their students apply their learning to the real world.

You can follow Amy McKinney on her Instagram page, The Unique Classroom.

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