Are we going back into lockdown?

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We've been keeping up with the latest headlines...
here are two of our favorites worth sharing.

Your Money

The mood last week was dominated by the surging COVID-19 cases in southern states and fear of another March-style lockdown.

In testimony, Dr. Anthony Fauci said, "I wouldn’t necessarily say an absolute shutdown, lockdown, but if someone is going from gateway to phase one to phase two and they get into trouble in phase two, they may need to go back to phase one."

Also deflating Wall Street optimism was the Senate's delay to vote on the Heroes Act (another $trillion+ stimulus package). Any bill will largely depend on the June jobs report out this Thursday which would push a vote off until after the July 4th holiday.

States might not need to do an 'absolute shutdown'
by William Feuer, CNBC

Your Life

More than ever, in a time of quarantining, many have become more sedentary. Physio-pedia.com has a good summary on sedentary behavior. Sedentary behavior describes activities that do not increase energy expenditure significantly above the resting level. Besides the obvious health risk of obesity, physical inactivity and sedentary behavior can contribute to hypertension, cardiovascular disease, stroke, diabetes, breast and colon cancer, depression, anxiety, risk of falls, osteoporosis, lipid disorders, and low back pain. Yes, low back pain. That last one actually surprised me. Here’s an old but still very relevant 10-minute video explaining low back pain, including around the 7.14 minute mark about how sedentary behavior increases back pain:

Low Back Pain
by Doc Mike Evans

By the way, light physical activity such as slow walking, sitting, writing, and cooking is not considered sedentary since these activities do require energy expenditure above the resting level. So, try to get in 30 minutes or more of moderate activity on all or most days of the week. Your back and overall health will love you for it.

Complexity Simplified

I love indoor plants, and I have a lot of them around my house. Luckily, I inherited a green thumb from my grandfather, and my plants (for the most part) thrive. There are lots of articles that say indoor plants help put fresh oxygen in your living space and helps purify the air. GardeningKnowHow.com cites the famous 1989 NASA study that found many houseplants are able to remove many toxic and cancer causing volatile organic compounds, like formaldehyde and benzene, from our indoor air. Check out the link below. They also have a list of recommended plants to clean air indoors.

Air Purifying Plants
by Raffaele Di Lallo

In full disclosure, I also saw lots of articles stating that the impact of indoor plants for oxygen and for purifying was so minuscule that it did not make a statistical difference. So, I’ve decided to do it for one reason only. Seeing indoor plants grow and thrive no matter the season simply makes me happy. And any extra amount of clean air certainly doesn’t hurt!

Trivia

A: Tittle
Q: What closes its scales when it is about to rain?

This got us all singing out loud