Hasta La Gadget!

Along a lonely stretch of highway in Alliance, Nebraska sits a mysterious monument to America’s rich history of putting the pedal to the metal: Carhenge. We sent our roving photographer, Joel Schat, out to capture the classic roadside wonder on camera, and the video doesn’t disappoint:

Paying homage to Stonehenge, Carhenge has been fascinating people since its installation in the ’80s. Dreamed up by Jim Reinders as a memorial to his father, Carhenge consists of a circle of cars with a heel stone, slaughter stone, and two station stones within the circle. In fact, it’s a near perfect match to its counterpart across a pond, thanks to Reinder’s extensive studies of Stonehenge while living in England.

While it’s certainly the centerpiece, the druidic tribute isn’t the only strange thing on the property. There’s also a “Car Art Preserve” populated with plenty of art projects created with vehicle bits and pieces, and even a little graveyard dedicated to three foreign cars buried on the grounds. A full vehicle serves as their makeshift gravestone, reading: “Here lie three bones of foreign cars. They served our purpose while Detroit slept. Now Detroit is awake and America’s great!”

Free of admission and open every day, Carhenge welcomes visitors with open arms, but encourages the curious to visit during daylight hours. God only knows what happens there at night. Fun fact: Carhenge is set to line up perfectly with a total solar eclipse in 2017, so now’s the perfect time to start planning your visit if you really want to catch an incredible sight. 

Can’t make it to Nebraska? Don’t worry, from Virginia’s “Foamhenge“, to Washington’s Maryhill Stonehenge, to South Carolina’s very own “Phonehenge” at the Freestyle Music Park, there’s no shortage of American tributes to the mysterious Stonehenge.

The biggest problem with school food isn’t that it’s too healthy, or that students are being offered too little. The biggest problem is that industry is feeding our kids, and we’re letting it happen.

As counterintuitive as it may seem, focusing solely on the nutritional value of the items being served at schools is not the best gauge of healthfulness. More important is how, when, and where the food is made, and by whom.

Items such as pizza, pork patties, and biscuits can be found in school meal recipe books published in the 1950’s, but that pizza of the past wasn’t ‘bake and serve.’ It was made and baked in-house by people who knew how to cook. Same goes for the biscuits. Regardless of how many servings of grains or how many grams of saturated fat it contained — home-cooked items were better for us than something made by industry. Several studies illustrate this.

Research aside, this is common sense. Something made more or less from scratch isn’t going to contain the added preservatives, emulsifiers, and artificial flavors and colorings that are endemic to most pre-made meals.

So why then, is the school lunch debate focused on rolling back whole-grain requirements and sodium restrictions? Why isn’t it focusing on the fact that the majority of food served in schools are pre-made items provided by food manufacturers? Why isn’t the same debate we are having nationally about our own health, that people are eating too many processed-foods, the same debate we are having about school lunches? Why do the health and well-being of our children deserve any less consideration?

It’s because the same food industry feeding our children is the same one feeding the debate. School food is a multi-billion dollar industry, and the revised school meal patterns released in 2012 threaten to hurt the bottom lines of dozens of food behemoths. These food giants fund half of the operating budget of the School Nutrition Association (SNA), an influential group representing 55,000 cafeteria professionals.

The SNA was one of the strongest advocates of Obama’s Let’s Move! campaign and helped lobby for the passing of the 2010 Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act, the legislation at the heart of this debate. Recently though they have been singing a different tune. Now the SNA has successfully lobbied to give schools waivers from nutrition standards for a full year, to the satisfaction of their industry partners.

Why not refresh the system? Any school that can show they are cooking at least 70 percent of their meals from scratch and serving whole fruits and vegetables every day, should receive automatic reimbursement for their meals. Schools should not have to depend upon industry to serve their students, just as we should not depend on industry to provide all our own meals.

Many schools today lack a proper kitchen. Just as cooking has declined in the household, it has become all but obsolete in most schools. Returning scratch cooking back to schools will take investment, but some schools are already doing it, and the numbers indicate that this is a financially viable option. If the USDA would be more flexible in their reimbursement requirements for scratch-made meals, then the excuse that cooking in schools is too complicated would no longer be acceptable. And it would give school districts around the country more flexibility when it comes to providing both satisfying and healthy options.

Many researchers have realized that relying on the processed-food industry is not going to solve our own health problems. What makes us think it can solve those of our children?

Millions of people suffer from acne. It can start as a young teen or as an adult. Whether your breakouts respond to home treatments or you see a dermatologist regularly one of the most feared complications is acne scarring. This can range from one “pock mark” to an entire face. The strange thing is that no one can predict who will develop a scar and who will clear with no lasting skin damage. Sometimes patients with only a few acne break outs with scar with each one, and some people can have extensive acne and heal without a problem. In recent years the options for treating acne scars have expanded with new and exciting technology that can treat even old scars with minimal downtime.

While there are many different type of acne scars, all of the treatments seek to normalize that collagen deep in the skin and produce a smoother surface. The less invasive the procedure, the more times it must be performed with the trade off of minimial “down time” — or time away from work or social activities. Here are 5 new ways that dermatologists can improve even older scars:

1. Intense Pulsed Light or Vascular Lasers: We use these in the acute phase where a patient had many red spots that may be starting to form into a scar. A few treatments with these light based devices can shut down the red vessels and make skin look more even and decrease the chance of a permanent scar formation.
2. Fractional Resurfacing — “heating” type or non-ablative. This procedure stimulates new collagen formation by heating tiny columns of tissue without damage to the surface of the skin. After each treatment there is mild redness and swelling which goes away in a few days. The treatment needs to be repeated at least 3 times over the course of several months.
3. Fractional Resurfacing with CO2 laser — A more intensive treatment that can give a great improvement in the texture of the skin. The laser vaporizes tiny columns of tissue. Healing takes about one week and is accompanied by significant peeling. During this time you must be away from work or social activities. It is usually done once or twice. The results are excellent but take up to 6 months to fully appear as collagen keeps growing in the skin for months after the procedure.
4. Microneedling is a new alternative for lower cost than laser treatments. By introducing fine needles into the skin new collagen is stimulated. Microneedling is done using a special vibrating pen like device that is fitted with a sterile tip containing tiny needles. A numbing cream is applied for 30 minutes and then removed. After treatment most people will experience redness and mild swelling in a similar way as mild sunburn for 24-48 hours but can resume regular activity almost immediately. There may be minimal pinpoint bleeding and/or bruising. The goal of microneedling is to break down old scar tissue and to stimulate skin cells to produce new collagen. This results in the formation of new tissue layers of elastin and collagen fibers as well as in new capillaries for improved blood supply. In response to the stimulus, the skin plumps and thickens. Microneedling can be used for mild to moderate acne scarring, skin texture and pore size. A series of treatments is required for best results. It can be used safely on skin of color.
5. Superficial fillers — Newer fillers are being introduced that can be placed high enough in the skin to achieve a smooth look almost instantly for acne scarring. They are best used for someone who desires immediate improvement. Most fillers last at least a year when used in this manner giving patients options of immediate results, little downtime and a once a year visit to the doctor.

There are many new, safe, and exciting ways to give relief to acne sufferers. It is best to consult a physician who is experienced in all of the treatments available as your treatment should be specific to achieve your personal best.

More questions about dermatology? Visit my website here.

NEW YORK — The Boston Globe has been lucky the past three presidential election cycles, with Massachusetts’ then-Sen. John Kerry or former Gov. Mitt Romney in the race.

The Globe’s longtime sources and institutional memory of the candidates paid off, allowing the regional paper to be a national authority on Kerry, Democrats’ 2004 presidential nominee, and Romney, the GOP’s 2012 nominee who was also in the running in 2008. The two even helped produce enough material for a couple of election-year books. The paper won’t have a similar opportunity in 2016, given the unlikelihood that Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) will run, but will again look locally to distinguish itself in a media-saturated election.

“Right now, our advantage is geography,” Globe Editor Brian McGrory told The Huffington Post. “We believe we know New Hampshire better than anybody else. We’re bringing in new people to accentuate that even more.”

The Globe has always covered its neighbor to the north, given that commuters cross the state line each day and much of New Hampshire is part of the greater Boston area media market. And historically, McGrory said, the New Hampshire primary has offered a “big chance every four years to play a significant role in the presidential process.”

“This year,” he said, “we’re looking to ramp it up.”

The Globe took a step in that direction last month by hiring James Pindell, the former political director of top New Hampshire station WMUR-TV and one of the state’s most plugged-in reporters. Over the past week, Pindell launched an insider-geared newsletter for The Globe focused on the primaries, “Ground Game,” and rolled out a graphic on the paper’s website that will keep a running tally of more than 100 prominent New Hampshire Republicans and their presidential endorsements.

This week, The Globe also hired Roll Call Politics Editor Shira Toeplitz Center, noting in a staff memo that one of her key areas of focus will be the New Hampshire primary. Center will work closely with Globe Politics Editor Felice Belman, who is also an expert on New Hampshire politics. She joined The Globe last spring from the Concord Monitor, where she worked for 26 years.

McGrory said that some “very, very good media organizations” in New Hampshire have faced cuts in recent years, so The Globe sees both “a need and an opportunity” to closely cover the state and next year’s primary.

While The Globe is staking an early claim, its reporters are hardly alone in traipsing through the state nearly a year from primary day. National political reporters visited New Hampshire this week to cover events with Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) and Vice President Joe Biden and can be expected to follow potential 2016 candidates making their pitches to would-be primary voters.

Some national news organizations also plan to assign reporters full time to covering New Hampshire, and other early voting states, to build sources and prepare for the crush of media attention expected in early 2016.

The New York Times recently assigned reporter Trip Gabriel to Iowa and noted it is planning to have a reporter focus on New Hampshire.

CNN is planning to embed reporters in New Hampshire, Iowa and South Carolina this spring, as it has done in past cycles.

Political Director David Chalian told The Huffington Post that the embed program is “a key component” of its 2016 strategy, but will be a fraction of the overall election team. Chalian said CNN, across television and its growing digital operation, will have “more than 60 people dedicated to the daily coverage of the campaign when at full strength.”

Bloomberg Politics managing editors Mark Halperin and John Heilemann will travel throughout New Hampshire, and its reporters are already assigned to major candidates.

But while Bloomberg Politics has no immediate plans to embed a reporter in New Hampshire, Executive Editor Thomas Johnson told The Huffington Post it hopes to gain additional insight on the ground through a partnership with the New Hampshire Institute of Politics at Saint Anselm College. Bloomberg Politics, he said, will then have “over a hundred Saint Anselm student journalists who will be extra eyes and ears on the trail.”

Mainstream dating services like Tinder, Grindr or OK Cupid don’t make it too easy to admit if your tastes are “very singular.” That’s why Whiplr has been created as a hookup app for people who prefer to get off with more than just a special cuddle. S…