Anita Weimann

At this late age learning to play bass guitar. I’m here for the dogs, cats & all critters. Retired OTR & Clinical Instructor

[Millie Marconi @MillieMarconnni]

A Japanese immunologist spent 20 years proving that the chemicals trees release into the air walk into your bloodstream, hunt down your stress hormones, and arm your immune system in ways no therapist or pharmaceutical has ever matched, and most of the data has been sitting in Japanese medical journals for two decades waiting to be translated.

His name is Qing Li.

He is a clinical professor at Nippon Medical School in Tokyo and the president of the Japanese Society of Forest Medicine. The Japanese government has been funding his research since 2004, and the body of work he has produced is the reason forest bathing is now an officially prescribed clinical therapy in Japan and Korea.

The story actually starts in 1982, when the Japanese Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries coined the term shinrin-yoku to describe the practice of slow, mindful walking in a forest. They did it for a practical reason.

Japan was urbanizing fast, stress-related illness was climbing, and the country had thousands of square kilometers of forest sitting unused. The idea was to give people a reason to walk into the trees... They had no idea what was actually happening to the human body during those walks until Qing Li ran the first proper experiment in 2005.

He took twelve healthy adult men on a three-day, two-night trip to a forest park. They walked for a few hours each day. Nothing strenuous. No prescribed routes or breathing exercises. They simply walked slowly through the trees, breathing the air, looking at the forest.

Li drew blood and urine samples before the trip, on the second day, on the third day, on day seven after returning home, and again on day thirty.

The numbers that came back from the lab were not what anyone expected.

The activity of a specific type of immune cell called the natural killer cell, which is the cell your body uses to hunt down cancer cells and virus-infected cells before they can spread, had jumped by roughly 50 percent during the forest trip. The actual number of natural killer cells circulating in the bloodstream had increased significantly.

Three different anti-cancer proteins that those cells produce, called perforin, granzymes, and granulysin, had all risen sharply. And the effect did not disappear when the men went home. The immune boost was still measurable on day seven and was still partially present on day thirty.

Two hours a day in a forest had upgraded the immune system for a full month.

Li ran the same experiment with women a year later and found nearly identical results. Then he ran it with a control group who took a three-day trip through an urban area with the same amount of walking, the same hotel quality, and the same diet.

The urban group showed no measurable change in natural killer cell activity at all. The forest was doing the work, not the vacation.

The mechanism turned out to be a class of airborne molecules called phytoncides. Trees produce these compounds to defend themselves against insects, bacteria, and fungi. Pine, cedar, oak, and cypress trees release them in particularly large amounts, especially in warmer weather and after rainfall.

When you walk through a forest, you are inhaling those molecules into your lungs and absorbing them through your skin, and once inside your body they appear to directly stimulate the production and activity of the very immune cells Li was measuring in his lab.

Roughly 50 percent of the health benefit of a forest walk, according to Li's data, comes from the chemistry of the air itself. The other half comes from what the forest is doing to your nervous system.

This is where it stops being only about the immune system and starts being about stress.

A separate Japanese research team measured cortisol, the body's main stress hormone, in 84 participants across 35 different forest sites. They drew samples before and after a 30-minute walk in each forest and compared them to control walks in matched urban environments. The cortisol levels of the people who walked in the forest were lower than the cortisol levels of the people who walked in the city by a significant margin. Their heart rates were lower. Their blood pressure was lower.

The activity of their parasympathetic nervous system, which is the part responsible for rest and recovery, had gone up. The activity of their sympathetic nervous system, which is the part that drives fight or flight, had gone down.

Then a researcher at the University of Michigan named MaryCarol Hunter ran the cleanest version of this experiment ever done. She recruited participants from a city and told them to take a nature pill three times a week for eight weeks.

They were free to choose the time, the place, and the duration of the nature experience, as long as it was outside, in daylight, and free of phones, conversations, and aerobic exercise. They sent her saliva samples before and after each session so she could measure cortisol changes accurately and rule out the normal daily drop in stress hormones that happens to everyone.

The result was that participants experienced a 21.3 percent drop in cortisol per hour spent in nature, with the biggest payoff happening between minutes 20 and 30 of the walk.

After that, the cortisol kept dropping, but more slowly. The threshold dose for measurable stress relief was just 20 minutes outside in something that looked and felt like nature.

What none of this means is that nature is a substitute for therapy or for medication when someone genuinely needs them. Therapy treats different things than a walk does, and Li himself has been careful in interviews to call forest bathing a complementary intervention rather than a replacement for clinical care.

But what the research has settled is that the human body has a physiological response to being among trees that operates on the same biological systems modern medicine is trying to reach with drugs and clinical protocols, and that response is fast, measurable, and free.

The strangest part of Li's work is the implication he keeps repeating in interviews. The average person now spends more than 90 percent of their life indoors. Their cortisol stays elevated. Their natural killer cells stay sluggish.

Their parasympathetic nervous system rarely gets a chance to take over. The system that was tuned by millions of years of life under a canopy of trees is being asked to run permanently inside a box made of drywall and screens.

Your body has not forgotten what it is supposed to do in a forest. It is waiting for you to walk into one.

[Suzie rizzio @Suzierizzo1]

Every woman that will be voting in the Midterms needs to do their research before voting because there’s a lot Republicans don’t want you to remember!

[Anonymous @YourAnonNews]

For Sale!

[Nature Girl @Natureegir1]

CALLIGRAPHA BEETLES
The genus Calligrapha, belonging to the leaf beetle family (Chrysomelidae), is famous for the striking patterns on its wings that resemble ink blots or calligraphy. These small beetles, measuring 9 to 12 millimeters long, come in colors ranging from black and white to red and have shapes that make them easily distinguishable. They are herbivorous in both their larval and adult stages, and many species display a high level of specialization: they depend almost exclusively on a single plant species to survive—just like Calligrapha philadelphica, which is closely associated with the dogwood tree. Their eye-catching appearance and close relationships with specific plant species make these beetles a fascinating example of adaptation and diversity in the natural world.

[Eric Feigl-Ding @DrEricDing]

📍Scores Fall Ill at Air Force Base After Hegseth Makes Flu Vaccine Optional
The defense secretary described the vaccine requirement, which he lifted in April, as an “absurd, overreaching” mandate. A major flu outbreak has sickened nearly 160 troops at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas less than two months after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced that U.S. troops would no longer be required to be vaccinated for the flu, defense officials said.
The outbreak at the base in San Antonio raced through an Air Force Basic Military Training wing, where new recruits sleep on bunk beds in open bays and share meals at large communal tables. A trainee in his sixth week of basic training died after falling ill on Friday.

[Anita Weimann @wuzner]

@atrupar @joncoopertweets He has almost zero fine motor skills. That’s why he struggled so much with that. Add fingers the size of sausages to the lack of fine motor skills.

[Anonymous @YourAnonNews]

For the first time ever in the United States the national price of a pound of Ground beef is now higher than the federal hourly minimum wage.
Thank you MAGA & Trump!
https://t.co/ZEx6YxKCaO

[Sammi🦋 @StoriesBySammi]

Land bordering Yosemite, Sequoia, and Pinnacles National Parks — now cleared for oil rigs and fracking. YES fracking!

Two hundred thousand people said NO. The federal government did it anyway.

Over 1 million acres of California public land just got opened up - land that touches ancient sequoia groves older than the country itself and sits right in Yosemite’s backyard.

Patagonia's CEO came out swinging, accusing the administration of putting oil profits over the planet's health and saying public land was never meant to be sold off to drilling companies.

And the man who'll make the final call? He was recently confirmed to run BLM after his own state party called him "an outright enemy of public lands."

Who's going to tell a tree older than the country that its time is up?

#DemsUnited

[Give A Shit About Nature @giveashitnature]

If you have a suet feeder up, take it down today. Here's why.

Suet is winter food: high fat, high calorie, built to help birds survive cold. In summer heat above 90 degrees it melts, drips, goes rancid, and grows bacteria and mold.

A bird that eats spoiled suet can get sick. A bird that gets melted suet on its feathers loses the waterproofing and insulation that keeps it alive.

The woodpeckers, nuthatches, and chickadees that love it don't need it right now anyway. It's June and insects are everywhere, which is what they actually need to raise their young. The suet is a supplement for lean times and lean times aren't now.

When the nights start cooling in October, put it back out. That's when the calories start to matter again and the fat stops going bad in an afternoon.

For now, just take it down. Clean the cage while you're at it.

[Michael T. Lester @MichaelTLester]

Remember those horrific pictures of Jews liberated from Auschwitz?

This isn't one.

This is a Palestinian man released after 26 months of Israeli "administrative detention." No charge. No trial. No legal rights.

"Never again" sounds noble. It just turns out it was never meant to apply to everyone.

The Israeli government currently holds roughly 3,500 Palestinians under this system, and has issued more than 100,000 such detention orders since 1967.

October 7th wasn't the start of this. It was a reaction to it.

Why don't we hear anything about this?

[Earth @earthcurated]

194 YEARS OLD. 🤯 Jonathan the tortoise was born around 1832. He has literally lived through the invention of the lightbulb, both World Wars, and the entire internet era. An absolute legend. 🐢👑

[James Tate @JamesTate121]

The 14-million-dollar money laundering scheme explained.

[Elise Wilshaw @EliseWilshaw]

Incrível a conversa da Cisne Negro com sua dona.

Ouça só, ela pronuncia diversos sons, mostrando seus 5 possíveis filhotinhos. Que orgulho ela está e feliz em mostrar.

📽️theblackswansisters

[Massimo @Rainmaker1973]

By planting strips of flowers among their crops, farmers are tapping into nature’s own pest control system to dramatically reduce the need for chemical pesticides.

This smart practice, known as farmscaping, involves strategically integrating flower strips into croplands. These floral corridors create ecological havens that supply pollen, nectar, and shelter for beneficial insects such as ladybugs, hoverflies, and parasitic wasps.

When pest numbers are low, the flowers provide essential food that keeps these natural predators in the area. As soon as pests appear, the beneficial insects are already on site and ready to hunt. Notably, ladybug larvae can consume up to ten times more aphids than adults, making them incredibly effective at protecting crops from aphids, mites, and other damaging pests.

For best results, experts recommend sowing a diverse mix of native, nectar-rich plants. Sweet alyssum is a favorite for attracting ladybugs, while herbs like dill, fennel, parsley, and cilantro support short-tongued beneficial insects. Adding daisy-family flowers such as yarrow, calendula, and marigolds helps maintain a balanced ecosystem.

By adopting this habitat-based approach, farmers can significantly cut back on chemical sprays, improve soil health, support greater biodiversity, and create safer working environments, all while maintaining or even boosting crop yields.

[Anita Weimann @wuzner]

@Mollyploofkins When writing all movements are originated from his shoulder. He has no fine motor ability to write normally. His ability is at a toddler stage.

[RedBone17 @Ray336148234565]

@martinez_j7902

[Anita Weimann @wuzner]

@atrupar @thendersonq Marco Rubio standing there knowing that once this admin is over he will never get a decent job again. Being a sycophant for trump is not the path to furthering an honest career. What a n f-ing disgrace.

[Bill Madden @maddenifico]

At the G7, a disoriented Trump begins wandering off until Macron raises his voice to get his attention — and then points him in the right direction. Trump looks bloated, miserable, unsteady, and sickly. The look in his eyes is one of total confusion.

[Daniel Mayakovski @DaniMayakovski]

Estas son las mujeres milicianas Akashinga, una unidad de élite de Zimbabue, 100% femenina, creada para proteger a los animales y combatir a los cazadores furtivos.

Estas mujeres han logrado una reducción del 90% en la caza furtiva de elefantes, protegiendo más de 5.261 km² de reservas naturales, expulsando a tiros a los criminales que intentan asesinar a los animales para vender marfil.

Estas heroínas sí que merecen un Nobel de la Paz, son auténticas defensoras de la humanidad.

[Reich-Wing Watch @ReichWingWatch]

🚨Tyler Steven Greene, 27, and Angel Faith Greene, 25, of Fleetwood, NC — vocal and proud MAGA Christians — have been charged with felony child abuse with serious injury after their 3-month-old baby was hospitalized with devastating injuries.

Angel’s Facebook was filled with “Trump Girl — Deal With It” posts, posts portraying Trump as a messianic figure saved by ‘god,’ and Bible verses.

Tyler was photographed wearing an “I Stand With Trump” camo hat.

According to arrest warrants, the couple allegedly “unlawfully, willfully, and feloniously did intentionally inflict…serious physical injury” to their baby.

Staff at Brenner’s Children’s Hospital in Winston-Salem alerted investigators after the baby arrived with four broken ribs, a stroke, subarachnoid hemorrhage, a right flank hematoma, pattern bruising, diffuse bruising, and petechiae.

Both were arrested June 8 and initially held without bond. More charges are pending.

It takes a special kind of cruelty to inflict such harm on a helpless infant. And this culture comes from the top-down — set by Trump and the Epstein class.