Moose and Arthritis

As you may or may not know, moose is my favorite animal. A long story short, my first encounter to moose happened in Yellowstone National Park while I was doing my first ever backpacking. I literally gazed into eyes of a bull moose when he was watching me bite lunch in mere 10 yards or so. Since this incredible encounter, I have been captivated with moose.

So I was glad to see this news article about moose's contribution to human arthritis research. It's funny and unexpected that a connection between moose and human arthritis has been found.

A research on moose in Isle Royale found that many moose suffer a kind of arthritis which, the research revealed, is likely caused by poor nutrition in early development of the body. Although causes of human arthritis and how it develops through the life are very complex, this finding suggests the importance of taking appropriate nutrition in early stage of the life or even by pregnant women.

By the way, Isle Royale is famous of its unique and valuable ecosystem encompassing moose-wolf interaction. I did some studies on this perfect showcase of the predator-prey interaction while in grad school.

Non-smoking in public spaces in Japan

Japan is way behind the US when it comes to non-smoking in public spaces. At last, Japan is heading to this (asahi.com in Japanese).
The most annoying thing while in Japan is a smoke-filled cafe! So many cafes and restaurants still allow smoking with a loose separation between smoking and non-smoking areas or even no separation at all that I hesitate to enjoy a coffee break.

In Japan, you can buy tabacco packages at a vending machine (the regulation on buying at a vending machine is getting tightened, though).

I'm very happy that most US states ban smoking in public spaces (List of smoking bans in the United States on Wikipedia). It's much less frequent in the US than in Japan that I get annoyed with somkes.