Hasta La Gadget!

Chances are you’re familiar with the specific discomfort that comes with taking your hair out of an updo after a long day. But have you ever considered why it’s so sore? Turns out, it’s not your actual hair that hurts at all. 

Dr. Angela Lamb, director of the Westside Mount Sinai Dermatology Faculty Practice, director of dermatology at the Institute of Family Health and an assistant dermatology professor at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, told The Huffington Post that it’s the nerve endings attached to each specific hair that are actually affected. 

“Hair follicles are some of the first receptors of feeling,” she said. “Your hair is a whole component of your nervous system, so when you pull it up that puts pressure on the nerve endings that are at the root of the follicle. When you do that over time, they get sore.”

According to Jessica Wu, M.D., a Los Angeles dermatologist, it’s also a matter of your hair growing accustomed to being in one position. “The nerve endings get used to the hair being in that direction,” she said. “Then when you take your hair down, the nerve endings get stimulated again, so your scalp feels more sensitive.”

But before you throw your hair back up into a ponytail and write off this discomfort as harmless, think again. Pulling your hair up repeatedly and too often can, as Lamb explained, can “put you at risk for something we call traction alopecia: Hair loss literally just from putting up, stress and tension on the hair.” Wu added that repeated pulling can also make the hair “thinner.”

Furthermore, constantly putting your hair up in the same way, whether for exercise or otherwise, can cause damage to your actual hair, too. “Hair is dead, it’s just made of Keratin, but certainly if you put too much tension and pressure on it that can cause breakage,” Lamb said. Try instead to do a variation of different updos, whether it be braids one day, a bun the next or a ponytail after that. 

When it comes to braids, it’s important to keep in mind that they are rooted in the black experience and particularly rocked by women of color in various ways. However, these beautiful hair styles can sometimes pull tightly on the scalp. Lamb warns that “braids are one of the main culprits of traction alopecia,” and that this rule applies for all hair types. Her advice for women who have their hair braided? “Make sure they are loose and not pulling on the hair too much or too tight.”

If you have an unwavering affection for updos and are left scarred by the thought of hair loss, fear not. There are steps you can take to not only prevent soreness of the scalp but also potential hair loss. “Don’t do it every day,” Lamb said. “If you have it up during the day, be sure to take it out for the evening. And just don’t do a pulled back style daily ― that’s when you can run into problems.”

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This mini engineer is putting a smile on a lot of people’s faces.

On Feb. 18, Facebook page Because of Them We Can posted a video that shows 7-year-old Noelle demonstrating how a robot that she made works. In the video, Noelle explains how her robot receives the energy to spin and then draws things thanks to the markers attached to it.

Roosevelt Scales, Noelle’s father, told The Huffington Post that his daughter made the robot for school. She attends California’s Da Vinci Innovation Academy, a school that includes instruction both on-site and at home.

“On site two days a week, she participates in project-based learning that ranges in topics from physics to fashion while her homeschool curriculum is culturally relevant and uses the Black365 calendar to introduce historical figures and events,” he said. “She also takes a weekly class at an art studio where they integrate science, technology, engineering, art and math (STEAM).”

Scales told HuffPost his daughter is always creating and drawing and that she makes something new every day.

“She’ll make books, games, clothes ― she is very intrigued by new things and finding out the hows and whys,” he said.

Robotics engineering is merely one of Noelle’s interests. Her dad said every day she aspires to be something different when she grows up. She is also into fashion, improv theater and painting. 

In less than a week, Noelle has racked up more than 76,000 views on the Because of Them We Can Facebook page. 

“#FACT: Black talent is real,” the page wrote in the caption.

The 7-year-old also got another 51,000 views after HuffPost’s Philip Lewis posted it. Scales said it “was exciting” for his daughter to see the reach of her video. 

“We are just a regular family trying to enjoy life and give our kids the best opportunity to figure out life for themselves,” he said. “So we think it is great that something that she did and didn’t think much about can be shared and viewed because this is where the real life is found ― in kids experimenting to discover.”

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CANNON BALL, N.D. — Officers arrested about 20 Dakota Access Pipeline protesters on Thursday after they defied a Wednesday deadline to leave the camp. 

Roughly 50 “water protectors” had remained in Oceti Sakowin camp before law enforcement swept in to apprehend some of the holdouts. Authorities appeared to restrain protesters with plastic handcuffs before placing them inside utility track vehicles that carried detainees up a hill. 

Officials had also driven bulldozers and armored vehicles into the camp on federal lands near the Standing Rock Sioux’s reservation and a disputed section of the pipeline. 

The camp has for months served as a base for protests against the pipeline, which the Sioux and their supporters argue violates their treaty rights and could contaminate their water source. The Morton County sheriff’s department has arrested more than 700 protesters since last summer. 

North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum (R) and the Army Corps of Engineers had ordered the camp to be emptied by Wednesday afternoon. They cited health and safety risks, as the area will likely flood from melting snow and possibly pollute nearby rivers with debris and waste from the camp. 

Authorities also arrested “approximately 10” people on Wednesday after the deadline passed to vacate the site. 

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.  

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Peeking inside a book bin at a Seattle Goodwill, Redditor vadermeer caught an interesting, unexpected glimpse into the early days of Apple: a cache of internal memos, progress reports, and legal pad scribbles from 1979 and 1980, just three years into the tech monolith’s company history.

Read more…

The BBC Earth and PBS animatronic wild animal series Spy in the Wild places realistic animatronic creatures in the midst of real ones so they can capture never-before-seen video of animals in their native habitats. The producers of the series have released a cool new video that shows off the amazing technology under the “skin” of these realistic animals.

Beneath the faux skin and fur of these lifelike animals you will find some incredible mechanical engineering. The skeleton of articulated metal limbs is controlled by sophisticated electronics and servos, then wrapped in a realistic costume that is good enough to fool the real animals. Nature documentaries sure have come a long way.

Each of these faux creatures mimics the moves of its real world doppelganger, and each one takes months to design and build. You can see why. For more on these incredible creations, be sure to listen to NATURE’s fascinating interview with animatronic designer John Nolan:

[via Laughing Squid]