Onslow County Sheriff's Office and Jacksonville Police Department team up for Kits4Kids
The First Responder Kits4Kids program as developed to help alleviate kid's anxiety during emergency situations. The program was developed by North Carolina men James Fisher-Davis and Kevin Gatlin. The two are devoted fathers who saw a need for children to be comforted during traumatic emergencies.
Every kit contains a playtime disposable play pad that has 25 interactive activities, crayons, a Rubik's cube, a miniature emergency vehicle, Play-Doh, a puzzle, noise cancelling earplugs, a colorful stress ball, hand wipes and a hand written note from first responders to provide encouragement.
The event will happen on June 11, at 10am at the Jacksonville Department of Public Safety.
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New York Post
3 hours ago
- New York Post
NY must launch own probe into city's handling of deadly Harlem Legionnaires' outbreak, ex-Gov. Cuomo says
Gov. Kathy Hochul's administration must launch its own probe into New York City's handling of the deadly Legionnaires' disease outbreak in Harlem, her predecessor Andrew Cuomo said Wednesday. Cuomo — now running for mayor — was governor when a Legionnaires' outbreak hit The Bronx in 2015, resulting in 15 deaths and 120 hospitalizations. After hearing complaints from Bronx officials and residents, he ordered a state investigation that led to stricter rules involving testing cooling towers for the disease-causing bacteria Legionnela. 'Confidence in government is paramount, and New Yorkers deserve to know if the City followed its own rules to prevent this deadly outbreak,' Cuomo said in a statement. Advertisement 4 Andrew Cuomo said NY must launch own probe into city's handling of deadly Harlem Legionnaires' outbreak. Matthew McDermott 4 Cuomo said Kathy Hochul must act on the outbreak. Tomas E. Gaston 'The last time we confronted a Legionnaires' outbreak of this scale, we not only moved heaven and earth to stop it, we put in place tough new protocols to prevent it from happening again,' he said. 'With the City now serving as both the regulator and the landlord for many of the affected buildings, there is an inherent conflict of interest. Only an independent review can determine whether the right steps were taken – or whether City inaction made a bad situation worse.' Advertisement Some of the cooling towers that tested positive for Legionnella in the current outbreak are on city-owned buildings, including Harlem Hospital and the city Department of Health's Central Harlem Sexual Health Clinic on the same stretch of West 137th Street. 4 Cooling towers in Harem that tested positive for Legionnaires'. Google Earth Cuomo said that means city officials may not be complying with the law they're supposed to enforce. There's an 'inherent conflict of interest' for the city to serve as both 'the regulator and the landlord' of the affected buildings, he said. Advertisement The state Health Department must conduct an independent probe because the city can't investigate itself, Cuomo said. 4 A locator map showing the locations of the Harlem Legionnaires' outbreak. Rob Jejenich / NY Post Design At least five people have died and more than 100 others have been sickened with Legionnaires', according to city health officials. A state Health Department spokesperson told The Post on Tuesday that it was assisting city Health Department officials in addressing the outbreak. Advertisement 'DOH continues to work around the clock to support NYC's legionnaires response. As a result of this collaborative effort, exposure has been significantly reduced, with no new diagnoses since August 12, and all identified deficient cooling towers have been remediated. We are continuing to aggressively monitor the situation, and any New Yorker experiencing symptoms should seek medical treatment immediately,' the DOH spokesperson said. Hochul said the state was playing a 'supportive role,' adding, 'I'm concerned and that I know the city's all over this. If I didn't think so, I'd let you know.' The Rev. Al Sharpton, along with civil rights attorney Ben Crump, is unveiling a lawsuit Wednesday against a construction company that did work in Harlem Hospital and allegedly contributed to the outbreak.
National Geographic
8 hours ago
- National Geographic
What is flow state? Here's the science behind top athletes' laser focus.
Pro climber Steph Davis climbing "Hidden Gem" near Moab Utah. The athlete often experiences a flow state during her intensive free climbs. Photograph by Chris Noble Steph Davis had reached the halfway point in her ropeless climb up the Sister Superior—a slim, 6,037-foot-tall natural sandstone tower. Surrounded by miles of red rocks, there was nothing but her grip strength keeping her from falling thousands of feet down into the open desert. As a professional rock climber, Davis often does free solo climbing, which means leaving her harness and ropes at home. Her plan on this climb, which took place in 2010, was to reach the top, then jump off with a parachute. As she climbed the tower in southeast Utah, the holds for her hands started getting smaller, and she was getting tired. She felt mentally distracted, and took a moment to pause. Suddenly, a feeling of calm energy washed over her. Her body seemed to take control, bringing her to the top. (Why a pair of adventurers decided to make their treacherous climb much harder.) Davis had entered a flow state, an experience that athletes, musicians, scientists, and artists say they tap into when they're confronting challenging situations. In this state, a person becomes completely engrossed in what they're doing and achieves a loss of self-consciousness while also feeling completely in control—a mindset that actor Chris Hemsworth leverages in Limitless: Live Better Now (currently streaming on Disney+ and Hulu, and on National Geographic starting August 25). In episode two, the 41-year-old enters a flow state while ascending the Luzzone Dam, an artificial climbing wall in the Swiss Alps that, at approximately 540 feet tall, is the world's highest. Though most of us likely don't find ourselves hanging onto a rock or a climbing wall hundreds to thousands of feet in the air, life's daily challenges can feel equally insurmountable. Can entering a flow state help push through all the difficulties you might encounter daily? While the mindset is a rewarding experience that comes from taking on life's hardest tasks, it also requires a certain set of conditions in place in order to be activated. What is flow state? In 1975, Hungarian-American psychologist Mihály Csíkszentmihályi became fascinated with how artists lost themselves in their work. His research found similar experiences reported by chess players, dancers, mountain climbers, athletes, and musicians. Csíkszentmihályi called the engrossed attention he observed a 'flow state' after many people he interviewed said they felt like they were floating and being carried by the flow. (Your body changes in fascinating ways during the first 10 minutes of exercise.) Regardless of profession or hobby, the states of mind these people entered all sounded similar. They lost their sense of time, became impervious to pain or fatigue, and achieved a laser focus on what they were doing. One later report from 1996 asked professional athletes what flow was like. 'You're just so absorbed in what you're doing that you're not really aware of what is happening around you,' one tracker runner said. A javelin thrower experienced time slowing down, saying, 'When I went to throw it, it was like things were in slow motion, and I could feel the position I was in, and I held my position for a long time." Based on his interviews, Csíkszentmihályi determined that to enter a flow state, a person first had to have a clear intention in mind; then, they had to be put under pressure, but not too much or too little. People entered flow states when they were pushed to their limits and had the expertise to accomplish their goal. 'It's a balance between your skills and the challenge,' says Abigail Marsh, a neuroscientist at Georgetown University who worked with Hemsworth on the show. The science behind the flow state Over the years, scientists have come up with different theories about what happens in the brain during the flow states. These theories fall into roughly two camps, says John Kounios, a cognitive neuroscientist at Drexel University. Some believe that flow states happen during periods of intense focus, when the brain is exerting more attention and greater effort to exclude everything but the task at hand. An alternate view argues that the brain calms down during flow, rather than ramps up, allowing a person's skills to take over. In 2024, Kounios and David Rosen, another cognitive neuroscientist, brought 32 jazz guitarists to a lab to study the location and intensity of electrical activity in the brain while they were in flow. Some of the guitarists were newer at playing, and some had played at an expert level for years. The researchers asked them to improvise solo performances and report back whether they fell into flow states, all while being measured by an electroencephalogram (EEG), which records electrical activity in the brain. The experienced musicians had a higher number of flow states that were also more intense. The scientists then compared what was happening in the brain when musicians said they had high-flow performances versus low-flow ones, and the difference was notable—there was less activity in the frontal lobes during flow states. The frontal lobes are responsible for executive processing, which organizes thoughts and behaviors, focuses attention, and forms goals. 'If the flow state was a matter of heightened concentration [and] focus, we would have seen greater activity in the frontal lobes when a person was in a state of flow,' Kounios says. The more experienced musicians also had activity in brain regions associated with hearing and vision during their flow states, while the less experienced musicians didn't show this activity. Kounious says it was as if the seasoned jazz players had their own brain networks for improvising that they relied upon, while at the same time releasing conscious control in the frontal parts of the brain. Kounios believes the study's findings show that flow takes place when the brain lets go and expertise takes over. 'It doesn't become something you have to consciously, deliberately do,' he says. How you can achieve a flow state Some amount of expertise is required for flow, whether it be during something thrilling like rock climbing, or a less intense activity, like building model ships or putting up drywall. As long as a challenge you're confronting demands that you utilize your expertise, that's when the flow state can be activated. If you're attempting a task that you're not skilled in at all—playing a concerto at Carnegie Hall as a beginner, for example—then you're more likely to experience frustration or fear instead. (Here's what fear does to your brain and your body.) However, there's no way to rush a flow state—it's something that comes on its own time. When you first learn a new skill, it's unlikely you'll experience flow; but if you turn away at the first sign of challenge or stress, you won't be able to increase your expertise to tap into those flow states later on. 'The flow state is the reward you get for tackling a difficult challenge,' says Marsh. You can still be highly focused and engaged in activities without needing to be an expert, however; Kounios calls this absorption. When you see a beautifully shot movie, read the end of a thrilling novel, or even clean out your garage, you might find yourself absorbed. Rather than chasing after flow, Marsh recommends thinking about what hobbies you genuinely like to do, keeping in mind that flow states are an eventual pleasant side effect of doing these activities that you find valuable and rewarding. (Your brain shrinks after 40. Learning a musical instrument can reverse it.) After all, the best way to gain expertise is to take on new and difficult experiences. It's not satisfying when a climb is too easy, Davis says. 'The goal in climbing is to get into the flow state,' though climbers call it 'sending.' When she's climbing at her limit, there's nothing better than entering flow and reaching her goal. In Utah, when she reached the top of that summit, 'I just had this incredible sense of well-being: Everything's right with the world. Everything feels good," she says. "It's a very euphoric feeling—you want to stay in that feeling for as long as you can.' "Limitless: Live Better Now" is currently streaming on Disney+ and Hulu and on National Geographic starting August 25. Check local listings.
CBS News
2 days ago
- CBS News
California is seeing spike in tick-borne illness anaplasmosis, experts warn
Ticks carrying a disease called anaplasmosis are spreading quickly throughout California, experts say. The disease is mainly showing up in dogs. Since dogs spend more time outdoors, experts say rising cases in pets could signal that humans may soon be at greater risk. More than half of the state's counties are now considered "high risk," according to the nonprofit group Companion Animal Parasite Council's data. "There's not a lot of awareness in California because most people think it's primarily a disease of the Upper Midwest and Northeast," said Dr. Jane Sykes, a professor of veterinary medicine at UC Davis. The culprit is the same western black-legged tick that spreads Lyme disease. In dogs, anaplasmosis can cause fever, fatigue, loss of appetite, and weight loss. In some cases, dogs may also experience nosebleeds, neck pain, or even seizures. "They kind of look depressed, dull, they don't want to move," Sykes said. "They have a fever, and sometimes they can develop vomiting." Veterinarians say diagnosis can be difficult, especially if owners don't mention that their dogs are often in tick-prone areas, making awareness critical. The good news: the illness can be treated quickly with antibiotics. "It doesn't matter when you give the antibiotics, it just costs more to have your dog in the hospital, not feeling well, going back in and out of veterinary clinics before the right diagnosis is made," Sykes explained. According to the Companion Animal Parasite Council, between 2021 and 2024 the number of dogs testing positive for the illness nearly tripled. More than half of California's counties are now at "high risk," including Yolo, Placer, and El Dorado counties. Veterinarians say the best way to keep dogs safe is year-round tick and flea prevention, as well as examining pets after walks in grassy or wooded areas.
