KempasUK

Science has confirmed that a weekend spent forest bathing can increase the activity and number of disease fighting cells in the immune system by as much as 80 percent with benefits that can last for an entire month. The challenge is significant. According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency the average American spends approximately 90 percent of their life indoors a habit that contributes to growing health problems. In our screen filled and high stress world a centuries old Japanese practice supported by rigorous modern research offers a simple and effective natural solution. For more than two decades Dr. Qing Li an immunologist at Nippon Medical School has studied Shinrin yoku also known as forest bathing. His work has translated the calming experience of being in nature into measurable biological effects. Dr. Li has demonstrated that trees release phytoncides antimicrobial volatile organic compounds that form part of the forests natural defense system. When people inhale these compounds during walks in the forest the chemicals enter the bloodstream. This process reduces stress hormones and helps shift the body from a chronic fight or flight state into a restorative mode. The physiological benefits are both powerful and remarkably long lasting. Dr. Lis research shows that exposure to phytoncides significantly boosts the number and activity of natural killer cells. These white blood cells are essential for destroying virus infected cells and tumor cells. A three day two night forest bathing trip can increase natural killer cell activity by up to 80 percent. These protective effects do not disappear immediately upon returning to daily life but can persist for up to a month. This evidence makes a strong scientific case for incorporating regular time in nature as an important element of preventive health care. [Li, Q. (2022). Effects of forest environment (Shinrin-yoku/Forest bathing) on health promotion and disease prevention: The establishment of 'Forest Medicine'. Environmental Health and Preventive Medicine, 27, 43]

Stories are a really weird chicken-and-egg problem for Twitch. They built Stories to try to create a new engagement tool for creators and communities. The idea seems to have been that creators would post great clips, and their community would engage with them, thereby spending more time on Twitch. However, creators largely didn't post Stories because there's little value in doing so. It was just more work, with no clear ROI. Why post a 60-second clip on Twitch, when you can post it to TikTok/Reels/Shorts and tell your community to watch there (and build a secondary platform). So, Twitch is now trying to make it SO easy to post Stories that every creator can just do it with a single click. The AI makes the clips; you just click 'approve'. So, every creator just starts slop-posting to their Stories because it's practically zero effort. And I suppose the assumption is that if you post, people will watch. But even if THAT assumption pans out (doubtful), because it's just slop-posting (as there's no reason creators will aim for quality; if they cared, they'd already be posting Stories) - and thus, no value for the vast majority of viewers to have to sort through all the slop to find any Stories worth watching. Human involvement in the creative process is what makes creative content enjoyable on a platform like Twitch. So, we're back to the drawing board - they have all this slop content, but nobody is watching... so what's the next iteration? Well, naturally, an algorithm to sort the content. And now they are just competing with Shorts/Reels/TikTok - but a half-decade in the past. Conspiracy Theory: I think the actual motivation here is to build an ad format, and they are trying to force some viewers into it so they can report back to Amazon.