Latest news with #Beran
Time of India
04-07-2025
- Science
- Time of India
Can your pet do Math? Science says some animals might be quietly crunching numbers
Math might seem like a strictly human domain, but scientists have long suspected that animals possess a primitive ability to recognize and compare numbers. The term for this is numerosity—the capacity to identify and distinguish quantities without actual counting. As per a report from VICE, according to Georgia State University psychologist Michael Beran, this cognitive skill shows up across species as diverse as frogs, spiders, birds, and primates. Why would nature hand animals a math toolkit? For survival, of course. Beran explains that understanding basic quantities helps animals make smarter decisions—like how many predators to avoid, how much food to chase, or even when to retreat from conflict. Animal Math in Action You might expect apes or dolphins to flex some numerical logic. But the real shockers are bees, frogs, and spiders. Golden orb weaver spiders track how many insects fall into their web. Honeybees count landmarks mid-flight to navigate. Túngara frogs, in a bizarre twist of biological one-upmanship, add extra syllables to their mating calls, essentially flexing their quantity sense to impress potential mates. In one of 2024's most talked-about studies, researchers discovered that carrion crows could caw out precise numbers—up to four—when prompted. That makes them the first known birds to 'count aloud,' a milestone in animal cognition research . You Might Also Like: Are AI-generated pet dramas the new viral money-makers? Creators' earnings will surprise you iStock While Tungata frogs are capable of counting given their unique mating call ritual, Golden orb weaver spiders track how many insects fall into their web. (Representational images: iStock) How They Do It? This isn't traditional math with symbols and equations. Most animals rely on an inborn tool called the Approximate Number System (ANS). Giorgio Vallortigara, a neuroscience professor at the University of Trento, explains that even newborn chicks show signs of this innate ability. ANS operates on ratios, not precise numbers. Animals are better at distinguishing large differences—like two versus five—than close quantities like eleven versus thirteen. This mental shortcut follows a rule known as Weber's Law, which governs how our brain perceives relative differences more easily than absolute ones. The Few That Actually Count While most animals estimate, a rare few break the mold. Irene Pepperberg's iconic African Grey parrot, Alex, could not only identify numbers but perform simple addition with jelly beans. That level of numeric comprehension remains uncommon but not unheard of. In controlled lab experiments, even unexpected species like pigeons, stingrays, cichlids, and honeybees have shown they can solve basic arithmetic when trained using visual symbols. Some researchers believe multiplication may also be possible in such scenarios, although the evidence is still emerging. You Might Also Like: Peak Bangalore moment? Auto driver travels with his pet dog, and the internet is loving it. Limits to the Logic Still, don't expect your dog to do calculus. Beran cautions that when numerical tasks get too complex or abstract, 'the case is much, much weaker.' These abilities operate within limits, but even within those bounds, they're striking. So, Is Your Pet Secretly a Mathematician? While your cat isn't solving algebra under the sofa, it might be using a primitive number sense to decide whether it got fewer treats than your dog. And the next time a pigeon beats you to a parking space, just remember—it may have calculated its odds faster than you did. In short, math isn't just for humans. And nature? It's been doing mental math long before we invented chalkboards.
Yahoo
13-06-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Young people with colon cancer are often misdiagnosed. 2 women share the symptoms their doctors missed.
Rates of colon cancer in people under 50 have grown in recent decades. One study found that 82% of young colon cancer patients were misdiagnosed initially. Two women who had colon cancer in their 30s were told they had hemorrhoids or a parasite. Brooks Bell and Sarah Beran connected online in July 2023 over something unfortunate they had in common: they were both treated for colon cancer in their 30s after doctors misdiagnosed them. Now, they're working together to prevent others from having the same experience. Before Beran was told in 2020 at age 34 that she had colon cancer, she chalked her fatigue up to being a working mom with two young kids. And she presumed the blood that had started appearing in her stools was caused by hemorrhoids. "It was just a crazy time with the kids. They were so young. I was so tired all the time anyway, and I was just so busy," Beran, a stylist in LA, told Business Insider. The most common colon cancer symptoms in people under 50 are abdominal pain, changes to bowel movements such as going more or less frequently, constipation, bloating, and diarrhea, according to a 2024 study published in JAMA Network Open. But other symptoms include blood in feces, unexplained weight loss, anemia, and vomiting for no obvious reason. Many of these symptoms overlap with common digestive problems such as irritable bowel syndrome, which means doctors tread a tightrope when it comes to diagnosing younger, generally healthy patients. In a 2017 survey of 1,535 colon cancer survivors under 50 conducted by the Colorectal Cancer Alliance, 82% said they were initially misdiagnosed. A 2020 survey by the charity Bowel Cancer UK of 1,073 colorectal cancer patients diagnosed under 50, and 222 people who responded on a patient's behalf, found 42% were told by doctors they were too young to develop the condition. Half of the participants didn't know they could get the disease at their age, and two thirds were initially diagnosed with conditions such as IBS, hemorrhoids, or anaemia. It's a challenge to make sure a symptom is attributed to the correct condition without scaring people while also not overlooking the early signs of colorectal cancer, Joshua Demb, an assistant professor at the University of California, San Diego, who studies early-onset colon cancer, previously told BI. A year into having IBS-like symptoms and needing to use the bathroom a lot more than usual, Beran's doctors sent her to a gastroenterologist who said she might have a parasite, but said it was likely nothing to worry about given her age, active lifestyle, and healthy diet. An at-home stool test for colon cancer detected no abnormalities. What are known as fecal immunochemical tests, or FIT, are about 80% accurate, according to the University of Colorado Cancer Center. When the bleeding got worse, Beran pushed for a colonoscopy and was diagnosed with stage 3 cancer. She said that doctors found a mass on her rectum and "over 100" polyps — small growths that are often harmless but can turn into cancer — on her colon. "It was quite shocking to hear the word 'cancer,'" she said. "Because I was so healthy, it just wasn't something that I thought would happen to me." Growing up, Beran played sports and, before her diagnosis, she exercised almost every day. She ate plenty of fruits and vegetables, too. Over two years, Beran was treated with 12 rounds of chemotherapy, and surgery to remove the cancerous tissues. She was given a temporary ileostomy connecting her small intestine to her abdomen to collect feces while her colon healed. In early 2022, doctors told her the cancer had spread to her lungs, which was treated with more surgery, as well as radiation therapy. She has been "cancer-free" for almost three years, she said. "I feel so silly looking back on it, but who's not tired, you know what I mean?" Beran said. While Beran was struggling with her symptoms in LA in 2019, Bell was seeking her own answers 2,500 miles away in North Carolina, after finding blood in her stool at age 38. The former CEO's doctor told her over the phone that she likely had hemorrhoids. When the bleeding didn't stop after a few weeks, Bell's doctor examined her in person and couldn't find hemorrhoids, but said they were probably higher up in her rectum. Sensing something wasn't right, Bell called a GI doctor without a referral, meaning it wasn't covered by her insurance. A colonoscopy revealed that she had stage 3 colon cancer, and was followed by three months of chemotherapy and surgery to remove 10 inches of her colon. In 2024, Bell hit the five-year cancer-free mark, where the likelihood that a cancer patient will have a recurrence drops. The cancer hasn't returned, but the worry never went away. "The treatment sucks, but the anxiety is so intense and is so persistent," she said, "you can't get away from it. It is barely tolerable." Bell is glad she trusted her instinct, despite being told several times the blood in her stool was nothing to worry about. "There were clues all along. You just needed to have someone who is willing to actually ask about your stool and really think about it, not shy away," she said. Overall, thanks to screening and lifestyle changes, fewer people are developing colon cancer, according to the American Cancer Society. It estimates that in 2025, 107,320 new cases of colon cancer will be diagnosed. But Bell and Beran are among a growing number of younger people to develop the disease. One in five colon cancer cases in 2019 were in people under 54, up from one in 10 in 1995, according to ACS data published in 2023. The cause is unclear, but scientists have pointed to changes in the gut microbiome, antibiotic use, and environmental exposures as possible explanations. Beran reached out to Bell online after she saw her Lead From Behind campaign, which featured Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney getting colonoscopies on camera. In July 2023, they met on Zoom and decided to combine their respective skill sets to create Worldclass, a clothing line intended to reframe colonoscopies as cool. They sell tote bags with the irreverent slogan "colonoscopy enthusiast" printed on, and streetwear-style tracksuits stitched with the the word "ass." In the US, people are advised to get their first colon cancer screening at 45, partly because age is a risk factor for developing polyps. However, if someone younger has more than one symptom of colon cancer, they should consider getting a colonoscopy, Dr. James Cleary, a gastrointestinal oncologist at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, previously told BI. During a colonoscopy, patients are either sedated or under general anesthetic while a thin tube with a camera on the end is put in the rectum and colon to check for polyps. They must fast and take a laxative in the days before the procedure. If polyps are found, they can often be removed then and there, meaning the procedure can help prevent colon cancer. "They're actually more like a fast, cleanse, then a nap. It's actually almost like a spa appointment," Bell said of a colonoscopy. "We could be reframing it in positive ways, where it's just a self-care wellness kind of experience." She added: "People do not know that it's this empowering, hopeful thing that can actually protect you from this major threat." Read the original article on Business Insider
Business Insider
13-06-2025
- Health
- Business Insider
Young people with colon cancer are often misdiagnosed. 2 women share the symptoms their doctors missed.
Brooks Bell and Sarah Beran connected online in July 2023 over something unfortunate they had in common: they were both treated for colon cancer in their 30s after doctors misdiagnosed them. Now, they're working together to prevent others from having the same experience. Before Beran was told in 2020 at age 34 that she had colon cancer, she chalked her fatigue up to being a working mom with two young kids. And she presumed the blood that had started appearing in her stools was caused by hemorrhoids. "It was just a crazy time with the kids. They were so young. I was so tired all the time anyway, and I was just so busy," Beran, a stylist in LA, told Business Insider. The most common colon cancer symptoms in people under 50 are abdominal pain, changes to bowel movements such as going more or less frequently, constipation, bloating, and diarrhea, according to a 2024 study published in JAMA Network Open. But other symptoms include blood in feces, unexplained weight loss, anemia, and vomiting for no obvious reason. Many of these symptoms overlap with common digestive problems such as irritable bowel syndrome, which means doctors tread a tightrope when it comes to diagnosing younger, generally healthy patients. In a 2017 survey of 1,535 colon cancer survivors under 50 conducted by the Colorectal Cancer Alliance, 82% said they were initially misdiagnosed. A 2020 survey by the charity Bowel Cancer UK of 1,073 colorectal cancer patients diagnosed under 50, and 222 people who responded on a patient's behalf, found 42% were told by doctors they were too young to develop the condition. Half of the participants didn't know they could get the disease at their age, and two thirds were initially diagnosed with conditions such as IBS, hemorrhoids, or anaemia. It's a challenge to make sure a symptom is attributed to the correct condition without scaring people while also not overlooking the early signs of colorectal cancer, Joshua Demb, an assistant professor at the University of California, San Diego, who studies early-onset colon cancer, previously told BI. A year into having IBS-like symptoms and needing to use the bathroom a lot more than usual, Beran's doctors sent her to a gastroenterologist who said she might have a parasite, but said it was likely nothing to worry about given her age, active lifestyle, and healthy diet. An at-home stool test for colon cancer detected no abnormalities. What are known as fecal immunochemical tests, or FIT, are about 80% accurate, according to the University of Colorado Cancer Center. When the bleeding got worse, Beran pushed for a colonoscopy and was diagnosed with stage 3 cancer. She said that doctors found a mass on her rectum and "over 100" polyps — small growths that are often harmless but can turn into cancer — on her colon. "It was quite shocking to hear the word 'cancer,'" she said. "Because I was so healthy, it just wasn't something that I thought would happen to me." Growing up, Beran played sports and, before her diagnosis, she exercised almost every day. She ate plenty of fruits and vegetables, too. Over two years, Beran was treated with 12 rounds of chemotherapy, and surgery to remove the cancerous tissues. She was given a temporary ileostomy connecting her small intestine to her abdomen to collect feces while her colon healed. In early 2022, doctors told her the cancer had spread to her lungs, which was treated with more surgery, as well as radiation therapy. She has been "cancer-free" for almost three years, she said. "I feel so silly looking back on it, but who's not tired, you know what I mean?" Beran said. Bell's doctor said the blood in her poop was likely caused by hemorrhoids While Beran was struggling with her symptoms in LA in 2019, Bell was seeking her own answers 2,500 miles away in North Carolina, after finding blood in her stool at age 38. The former CEO's doctor told her over the phone that she likely had hemorrhoids. When the bleeding didn't stop after a few weeks, Bell's doctor examined her in person and couldn't find hemorrhoids, but said they were probably higher up in her rectum. Sensing something wasn't right, Bell called a GI doctor without a referral, meaning it wasn't covered by her insurance. A colonoscopy revealed that she had stage 3 colon cancer, and was followed by three months of chemotherapy and surgery to remove 10 inches of her colon. In 2024, Bell hit the five-year cancer-free mark, where the likelihood that a cancer patient will have a recurrence drops. The cancer hasn't returned, but the worry never went away. "The treatment sucks, but the anxiety is so intense and is so persistent," she said, "you can't get away from it. It is barely tolerable." Bell is glad she trusted her instinct, despite being told several times the blood in her stool was nothing to worry about. "There were clues all along. You just needed to have someone who is willing to actually ask about your stool and really think about it, not shy away," she said. More younger people are getting colon cancer Overall, thanks to screening and lifestyle changes, fewer people are developing colon cancer, according to the American Cancer Society. It estimates that in 2025, 107,320 new cases of colon cancer will be diagnosed. But Bell and Beran are among a growing number of younger people to develop the disease. One in five colon cancer cases in 2019 were in people under 54, up from one in 10 in 1995, according to ACS data published in 2023. The cause is unclear, but scientists have pointed to changes in the gut microbiome, antibiotic use, and environmental exposures as possible explanations. Giving colonoscopies a trendy rebrand Beran reached out to Bell online after she saw her Lead From Behind campaign, which featured Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney getting colonoscopies on camera. In July 2023, they met on Zoom and decided to combine their respective skill sets to create Worldclass, a clothing line intended to reframe colonoscopies as cool. They sell tote bags with the irreverent slogan "colonoscopy enthusiast" printed on, and streetwear-style tracksuits stitched with the the word "ass." In the US, people are advised to get their first colon cancer screening at 45, partly because age is a risk factor for developing polyps. However, if someone younger has more than one symptom of colon cancer, they should consider getting a colonoscopy, Dr. James Cleary, a gastrointestinal oncologist at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, previously told BI. During a colonoscopy, patients are either sedated or under general anesthetic while a thin tube with a camera on the end is put in the rectum and colon to check for polyps. They must fast and take a laxative in the days before the procedure. If polyps are found, they can often be removed then and there, meaning the procedure can help prevent colon cancer. "They're actually more like a fast, cleanse, then a nap. It's actually almost like a spa appointment," Bell said of a colonoscopy. "We could be reframing it in positive ways, where it's just a self-care wellness kind of experience." She added: "People do not know that it's this empowering, hopeful thing that can actually protect you from this major threat."
Los Angeles Times
12-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
How does a ‘fancy' L.A. restaurant reopen as casual in just two weeks? A play-by-play
Prince changed his name to an unpronounceable symbol. Snoop Dogg went by Snoop Lion for a time, and briefly Snoopzilla. Shifting your brand as an artist can be a welcome, and sometimes predictable, step in a career that spans a lifetime. But what happens when a well-established, award-winning restaurant decides to rebrand itself as a casual neighborhood bistro? And attempts to do it in just two weeks? It's a challenge Dave Beran and his staff at Pasjoli restaurant just attempted — and completed — in time to reopen tonight. Here's a behind-the-scenes look at how they did it, step by step. Dave Beran is balancing a baby in one arm and a laptop in the other. His toddler is asking for cereal. The chef is on a Zoom call to discuss the future of Pasjoli, the Santa Monica French restaurant best known for Beran's reimagined French classics, and most notably, his whole pressed duck. Ann Hsing, chief executive and chief operating officer of Beran's restaurants, and investor Michael Simkin, a film and TV producer, are also on the call. 'I'm astonished that people set things on fire at our bar, but apparently they do,' says Beran. The team is discussing menu placement on the table. Should they put a candle on the table to illuminate the menu? Maybe they can use a wire hanger to leave the menu hanging? Should servers bring over a small menu board? The specifics of a menu presentation may seem like a trivial detail when considering the overall experience at a restaurant. But for Beran and his team, it's a first impression, and the first step in recalibrating diners' assumptions about what Pasjoli is, and what the new Pasjoli could be. Beran, the former executive chef at Next in Chicago, established himself as a fine-dining chef in Los Angeles with the 2017 opening of Dialogue, a thrilling, 18-seat tasting menu restaurant. In 2019, he followed with Pasjoli, a destination-worthy French restaurant that offered a showstopping tableside pressed duck presentation, thon et tomate and a shower of truffles over foie de poulet à la Strasbourgeoise. When he reviewed the restaurant in late 2019, critic Bill Addison called Pasjoli 'a return to grand French dining in L.A.' Then the pandemic happened, and the restaurant underwent a series of changes, shifting to takeout, then to in-person dining again. Dialogue closed. Pasjoli started offering more casual bistro fare and an expanded bar menu. Most recently there was a prix fixe menu. But somehow, despite adjustments, the restaurant couldn't quite shake its original 'grand' identity. 'Dave is Dave,' says Hsing. 'He comes from a very high-caliber restaurant resume. When we opened, to us, it was a version of casual. Meanwhile, the rest of L.A. was saying this is one of the fanciest restaurants in L.A.' In December, Beran opened Seline, a $295 per person tasting menu restaurant down the street, further solidifying himself as a fine-dining chef. Though the restaurant recently introduced a limited eight-course, $165 tasting menu. And Beran is determined to bring an air of fun to Pasjoli. 'Start the night at the bar with a few people and just saber a bottle of Champagne,' he suggests as an opening image. Yes, he's talking about the celebratory practice of opening a bottle of Champagne by striking the seam of the bottle with a sword. Or maybe batch cocktails? Frozen martinis? It would cut down on labor, the drinks will come out faster, allowing them to lower the cost of each drink by around $2 and provide a more consistent experience for guests. 'We had this idea, whether it's tableside or at the bar, having some sort of punch-esque scenario, partially for cost but also, it's aesthetically interesting,' Beran says. 'We're looking into absinthe towers.' Beran and chef Jack Joyce are in the kitchen at Pasjoli, inspecting a tomato salad. 'It looks too fancy,' Hsing declares. 'It's literally chunks of tomato and arugula and radish,' Beran counters. The bowl in question is a bowl of frill lettuce, a cross between iceberg lettuce and curly endive that lives up to its name. Over the top are hunks of tomato covered in delicate shaved radish. The bowl has a scalloped edge with a rim of gold. The staff are deep into the research and development phase of the menu, with Joyce and Beran preparing a handful of dishes for feedback from Hsing, general manager Hayley Sedlock and head of people (yes, that is her title) Keely Obbards. Joyce emerges from the kitchen carrying a whole, fried maitake mushroom. 'It's a Bloomin' maitake mushroom,' he says. 'With ranch.' Next up is a caramelized leek tart over a smear of hollandaise sauce. The tart is painted in a white wine reduction and finished with a smattering of smoked trout roe. 'I want more leeks,' offers Hsing. 'Hollandaise makes me think of brunch,' says Obbards. Joyce looks mildly miffed but determined, and heads back into the kitchen. Hsing attempts to break down the pricing. While the check average at Pasjoli may not be as high as some of the other restaurants in town, there is a perception, however misguided, that French is synonymous with fancy. A few lower-priced items on the menu could go a long way in changing that perception. 'For me, there are two large buckets of cost to control, it's food and labor,' she says. 'Say you have this item like a tomato that is on the cheaper side, but it takes three different people over the course of a week to do something with it to produce the final product, then it's a much more expensive item on the menu than the food cost is reflecting. Our stocks and sauces here take three to four days.' There's a range of prices Hsing is aiming to hit, with a group of courses in the $10 to $20 range, another in the $20 to $35 area and plates viewed as entrees in the $40 range. A few larger-format dishes or things designed to be shared by the entire table will be priced at $150 or higher. And the desserts, with the exception of the chocolate soufflé, will be under $20. 'I know people think we are really expensive. We want to make sure you feel like the amount of money you pay when you're done feels like it was worth it, whether that be from a food side or service side or the overall experience,' Hsing says. The dining room is starting to show signs of a facelift, with lush plants punctuating the room. The art on the walls is being reconsidered. The front will be repainted. Beran returns from the kitchen with two small white porcelain bowls of soup, each with a cap of melted cheese. The French onion souplettes are miniature bowls of the classic soup, made with Provolone for a top layer that browns and bubbles, Gruyère for flavor and mozzarella for the cheese pull texture. 'It's literally a French onion soup but super small,' he says. He digs a spoon into each soup. 'Already it looks like the bread absorbed all the liquid. Should I put more fat? Butter cubes? Traditionally it's veal stock. Do you care that they are vegetarian?' 'For L.A., it's probably better that it's vegetarian,' says Sedlock. The bar program is another sticking point for Beran, who wants the bar area to become a place where people can casually stop in for a drink after work. He's doing away with the restaurant's opening rule of exclusively carrying French spirits. And he's building a small bar top up against the front window of the restaurant, creating an area where people can sip a drink and people-watch on Main Street. Bar manager Tom Sullivan brings a few cocktails over to the table of managers. One is a gin drink with a tiny, yellow ice cube in the shape of a ducky sitting in the glass. The other is what Beran likes to call a 'fluffy' drink, made by swapping in meringue for simple syrup, creating a layer of fluff atop the cocktail. We're back to discussing the table menu. And the place setting. The team has decided to present guests with narrow menus that fit neatly into a square gold placeholder Beran previously used to serve chips at Dialogue. Tables will be pre-set, with a stack of plates and roll ups, the term for napkins rolled around a set of silverware. Approachable. Easy. Hsing brings up a copy of the working menu to discuss with the team. Every detail, from the name of a dish to where it is listed to the description, is debated. Do they want to rename the chicken liver? Call it a mousse so people don't expect a plate of sautéed chicken livers? What should the beef tartare come with? Chips are too much labor. Maybe a chunk of baguette. Do they need to explain the French onion souplette? Should the mussels come with fries or should people order the fries separately? Which one feels more approachable? More like an entree? The pressed duck will return to its original tableside presentation. Most recently, it was relegated to one an evening, at a table in front of the kitchen. When the restaurant reopens, the duck will be available with updated accouterments in limited quantities, with a deposit required for the reservation. Hsing grabs a stack of cards from the office printer and presents them to Beran and the other managers. The team is testing prototypes for a cocktail card that will allow guests to customize a cocktail. 'We know the food is awesome, but what can we do to make it fun and interactive?' she says. 'This could totally bomb. We'll find out.' It's three hours before the doors open for friends and family, the first night of practice service for the staff. The team has invited investors and other guests for a dress rehearsal of sorts, with the restaurant serving guests a free dinner while they work out any kinks in the dining room or kitchen. Pasjoli already feels like a different space, with four new seats along the front window. Two additional seats were added to the main bar. The big table that sat at the front of the open kitchen is gone, leaving no barrier between diners and the chefs. The chandeliers are gone. In the kitchen, Joyce and the team are stuffing half-chickens into bags to poach with pats of butter. Later, they will be seared and then roasted to order. Another chef is prepping Fresno chiles for a hot sauce. Tomatoes are being sliced. Shallots brunoised. In total, the kitchen will prepare 28 orders of roast chicken, 40 French onion souplettes, 30 orders of Cordon bleu chicken wings, 20 cheeseburgers, 30 plates of halibut crudo (made by breaking down a 10-pound fish) and two rock fish for the evening. Beran has decided to promote Joyce to chef de cuisine. 'Jack really stepped up and the goal is for me to play editor,' he says. At 3:30 p.m. sharp, the staff sit down for family meal. Big bags of hot chicken from Main Chick are emptied and transformed into a buffet table for the staff. At 4:15 p.m. Sedlock gathers the servers for a pre-shift meeting. 'How are we feeling?' She's met with an enthusiastic 'Wooooo.' Sedlock instructs the servers to let people order, then make suggestions based on the amount of food. The goal is to see how people naturally respond to the menu, and to pick up on any patterns or feedback. Wine will be poured at the table. To practice pouring five-ounce glasses, servers will weigh the bottle at a station, pour the glass, then re-weigh the bottle to see how they did. By the end of the evening, the five ounce pour should be a matter of muscle memory. 'Really utilize the information you get tonight. Pay attention to how people order,' Sedlock says. The clean plates, or remnants left of a dish, will be a clue to the kitchen for what dishes worked, and which might need tweaking. It can also offer insight into portion size and how much people should order. Then Sedlock turns to Beran and asks if he has anything final to add. 'We are rebuilding our identity, and the only way to do that is start at zero and go,' he says. 'You make a mistake, start over. Let's just do it. We'll do it right.' A few moments later, a host moves to unlock the door. The crop of servers watching her yell together — 'Doors!' — and with that, the first customers shuffle in. The facade of Pasjoli looks bright in the late afternoon sun, the moody dark blue now replaced by a cheery turquoise called Deep Lagoon. The dining room is full at 5:45 p.m., with patrons elbow to elbow at the bar. The word bustling comes to mind, a feeling not easily achieved with the constraints of the restaurant's former layout. Now, every corner of the room feels alive, brimming people chatting and sipping cocktails. The menu is shorter, and yes, more approachable than the original, with deviled eggs ($12), the French onion souplette ($14), and the Paris Baguette ($19), described simply as a ham and cheese sandwich. For the final version of the maitake mushroom ($19), Joyce ditched the ranch idea and decided on an allium aioli and a potion bottle of malt vinegar on the side. There's an option to use a cocktail card to choose your own libation adventure ($24). Miniature martinis the restaurant calls 'mar-tinys' and 'snack-quiris' are listed for $14. The French souplettes are a joy to eat, with croutons you dunk into a soup crowded with melted cheese and sweet onions. The chicken liver mousse comes in a petite glass ramekin with a tart cherry aspic lining the top. The burger is an upgraded version of the one Beran served at the bar, with black pepper-crusted grilled onions and a bone marrow aioli. The bun is now made at the restaurant, a cross between a brioche and a potato roll. At 2 a.m. the previous morning, Hsing rebuilt the website and added the words 'French is fun' to the homepage. The mantra also shows up on the new receipts. By the time the evening ends, Beran and Joyce have changed the construction of the souplette, filling them to order. The maitake mushroom is no longer dredged in flour. Instead, it's battered like tempura and cut into two pieces. More surface area of crunch. More to dip. The tweaks, shifts and slight alternations will continue through Thursday, tonight, when the restaurant officially reopens to the public. Until the moment the staff yells 'Doors' in unison and welcomes the first customers to the new, casual Pasjoli. With a new facade, new art on the walls and an entirely new menu, it's the Pasjoli you remember, with a little less fuss, and if Beran is successful, a lot more fun.
Business Insider
29-05-2025
- Health
- Business Insider
The taboo colon cancer symptom millennials are afraid to tell their doctors about
When Sarah Beran started noticing blood in her poop, she didn't know how to bring it up to her doctor. "I felt like I went in there with my tail between my legs, and not only was I talking about poop, but I was talking about my butt and blood and it's just all these things you don't want to talk about," Beran, 39, told Business Insider. Beran, who was later diagnosed with stage 3 colon cancer at age 34, went on to talk about bowel movements a lot: she co-founded Worldclass, an apparel brand that donates proceeds to fund colonoscopies for people who are underinsured. Beran's experience of anal bleeding is not uncommon. It is statistically the most common warning sign of colon cancer in patients under 50. Studies show that many patients, like Beran, feel embarrassed to talk about it with anyone, including their doctors. More young people are being diagnosed with colon cancer. Part of why it's so difficult to diagnose is that early symptoms like diarrhea and bloating can be caused by everything from hemorrhoids to a gluten allergy. The other hurdle is stigma: people just don't want to talk about seeing blood in the toilet or in their pencil-thin stools. "Unfortunately, it's something that I see quite frequently," Dr. Fola May, a gastroenterologist and an associate professor of Medicine at UCLA, told BI. She said it's common for people to ignore and they may avoid sharing their symptoms out of embarrassment. "They delay bringing it up until it gets more and more severe, and they actually can't function or have a normal workday," May added. By then, their cancer is likely to have progressed to later stages. Anal bleeding is common with younger patients Early colon cancer symptoms are easy to miss. Abdominal pain or constipation can be linked to many different conditions, like celiac disease or IBS. That's why rectal bleeding is important to flag. Joshua Demb, a researcher who studies early-onset colon cancer and an assistant professor at the University of California, San Diego, led a 2024 study on the most common symptoms of colon cancer in young people. Demb's study found rectal bleeding was the most common sign of colon cancer — more than altered bowel movements or abdominal pain — because it was more specific and harder to explain with lifestyle changes. It can be hard to know how seriously to take some symptoms. Anal bleeding is often caused by non-life threatening conditions like hemorrhoids. Some patients who are otherwise young, healthy, and who have no family history can be dismissed by doctors, partly because colonoscopies are more involved procedures and can cost a few thousand dollars without insurance. The difficult work is making sure a symptom is "attributed to the correct condition," Demb said, without preemptively scaring people or overlooking the early signs of colorectal cancer. Millennials are afraid to talk about stool Poop has a long history of being taboo, regarded as unsanitary and embarrassing. As societies like Victorian-era England developed indoor plumbing and individual latrines to replace communal ones, defecation became more private — and consequently more shameful to talk about in public. The stigma has never really gone away. From interviewing colon cancer patients, Demb learned many young people are afraid to broach the topic of poop and rectal bleeding with their doctor, even though that conversation could be life-saving. "Part of that apprehension comes from probably not having had to discuss this ever before in their care," he said. As people enter their 50s and colonoscopies become standard care, talking about bowel movements becomes slightly more normalized. When Naiké Vorbe started cycling through diarrhea and constipation, she didn't know how to talk about it, and hesitated at first. "You don't really speak about gastrointestinal issues," Vorbe, who grew up in Haiti, told BI. Vorbe was diagnosed with stage 3B colon cancer at 31. By then, her cancer had spread so much that she needed to have parts of her colon and liver removed. Chris Rodriguez, who was otherwise fit and healthy when he was diagnosed with stage 3 rectal cancer at 35, remembers feeling embarrassed about sharing his digestive agony with friends, relatives, and even doctors. He feels from personal experience that younger people are averse to talking about cancer because they feel they're "not supposed to" be worrying about it yet. "I know that people are too afraid to talk about these things with their doctor, too afraid to talk about these things with anybody around them," Rodriguez, now 37, told BI. "That's pretty scary for me." Vorbe and Rodriguez both had late-stage cancer and rectal bleeding as a symptom. It makes the symptom all the more important to flag: sometimes, blood in the stool won't show up until the cancer has progressed. The push to make rectal bleeding less taboo Brooks Bell, one of the Worldclass co-founders, remembers struggling to share how she was feeling with her husband — they weren't the types to use the bathroom with the door open, for instance. "Every relationship is different," Bell, 44, said. "Our relationship did not have those features, and so it can be so awkward." Now, she and Beran are trying to help younger people feel emboldened to talk about colon cancer symptoms and taboo body parts. Their brand, Worldclass, sells merch that says "Ass" and "Colonoscopy Enthusiast." Bell also founded Lead From Behind, a campaign backed by the Colorectal Cancer Alliance that involved Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney getting colonoscopies on camera to normalize the procedure. But ultimately, the biggest change might have to start in the doctor's office. Even though she's a GI doctor, May said she still gets patients who blush when they talk about their bowel movements. May says she tries to shift that dynamic by being intentional about her language. "When I'm in public, I say words like 'rectum' and 'poop' and 'stool,'" she said, adding that she wants her peers to do the same. Talking about blood in poop should be as normalized as talking about spotting breast cancer lumps, May said. "Until we make them normal in public," she continued, "people will feel uncomfortable producing those words from their mouths." How to know if you have a colon cancer symptom, or if it's something else Because early colon cancer symptoms can be so ambiguous, Demb said the more important thing to look out for is deviation from your lifestyle. For example, if you normally have very consistent bowel movements and suddenly have persistent diarrhea, see a GI. If you have ongoing rectal bleeding for the first time in your life or unusual stomach pain that won't go away, consider booking a colonoscopy. May also suggested getting a colonoscopy sooner if you have any family history of the cancer. She recommended getting screened at age 40 instead of the standard 45, and for primary care physicians to start bringing up the potential of screening before age 45 in general. Because colonoscopies can be expensive and inaccessible to people under 45, the best anyone can do is be vigilant, Demb said of symptoms like anal bleeding. Rodriguez, who is now cancer-free, believes it's important to investigate any warning signs. "You're not being silly by thinking about them," he said. "You're not overreacting by thinking it could be cancer." Additional reporting by Kim Schewitz and Mia de Graaf.
