Thursday Things: Amber & Eyes Edition
12 September 2024. Vol 6 No 37. By Dan McGirt. #266
Thursday Things is here! This week we trip over a treasure, look progress in the eye, and kick the online habit.
A friendly reminder from Spooky the Cat: It is too soon for Halloween decorations! Wait until October like a civilized person! Photo by Mariya Muschard on Unsplash
If you enjoy this edition, please click the heart icon in the header or at the end of the post to let me know! ❤️
Doorstop millionaire
Imagine being a millionaire and not knowing it. And imagine that unsuspected fortune is literally right at your door the whole time!
It happened in Romania:
Elderly Romanian woman used amber nugget worth over $1 million as a doorstop for decades
One of the largest known amber nuggets in the world, valued at around €1 million, has been found in the home of an elderly woman in Romania. The woman, who found the 3.5-kilogram (7.7 lb) stone in the bed of a stream in Colti, a village in the southeast of the Eastern European country, used it as a simple doorstop for decades without anyone realizing its value, not even the jewel thieves who broke into her home, the local media reported.
Also, imagine being one of those jewel thieves reading this article!
The extraordinary fossil resin caught the eye of a relative of the homeowner, who died two years after the fall of the communist dictatorship in 1989. Having inherited what he first considered to be just a rock, he examined the piece of amber more closely and deduced that it could be a semi-precious stone of great value. And he was right. He sold the unique find to the Romanian state, which promptly classified the piece as a national treasure.
Alas, the original owner of the amber nugget never knew its true value. It wouldn’t have done her much good under Romania’s communist regime anyway.
Polish experts immediately confirmed the authenticity of the amber stone and estimated that it could be between 38.5 and 70 million years old. “Its discovery represents a great significance both at a scientific level and at a museum level,” explains Costache, who believes that its value is incalculable. The expert claims that it is one of the largest pieces in the world and the largest of its kind.
Romania has some of the largest amber deposits in the world, so it’s not completely random that the woman found a big chunk of it lying in a stream all those years ago.
Members of the owner’s family reported that the old lady was the victim of a break-in in which only a few pieces of gold jewelry of little value were stolen, while the amber nugget was completely ignored. “In their frantic search for valuables, they overlooked the real treasure that was there before their eyes,” they said.
You have to love the irony. Anyway, today might be a good day to take a closer look at any seemingly unremarkable rocks around the house or that dusty old painting in the attic that is probably a lost Rembrandt!
Coming soon: The amber nugget tells all in new memoir I Was A Romanian Doorstop. Image: Museo de Buzau via El Pais
Saving face
I like stories where some amazing advance in medical science or surgery techniques makes it possible to help people who, in times past, would have been condemned to far more suffering, simply because the means to help them didn’t exist yet.
I’m fundamentally a techno-optimist (though not a techno-utopian). I believe the better we understand the world, and the more problems we figure out, the better life can be for more people. This story is a good example of that:
World's first combined whole eye, face transplant at NYU called success
A patient who underwent the world's first whole-eye and partial-face transplant has healed astonishingly well more than a year after the 21-hour surgery, a new report says.
The report of the surgery, conducted at NYU Langone Health in New York City, appeared Monday in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Researchers hailed the results as remarkable because helping people with catastrophic facial injuries that include eyeball loss has presented a daunting challenge even for surgeons at the nation's leading academic medical centers.
It does sound daunting.
"This is the first of many significant hurdles to be crossed on our way to the restoration of sight with transplantation," Ceradini added.
So far, the transplanted donor eye has not reacquired the ability to see, but it continues to display normal pressure and blood flow. This is a notable improvement over whole-eye transplants in animals, where the eye often decreased dramatically in size, researchers noted.
"Getting blood supply to the eye has been a logistical hurdle previously," Ceradini said.
Will this particular patient ever gain sight in the donor eye? Maybe not.
But the lessons learned from his case will improve the odds of that happening for the next patient, or the one after that. Eventually we’ll figure it out.
Here’s what happened:
A team of more than 140 doctors, nurses and other health professionals collaborated on the surgical procedure in May 2023 on Aaron James, a military veteran from Hot Springs Village, Ark., who was otherwise healthy.
In June 2021, James sustained severe injuries in a high-voltage electrical accident at his job as a lineman near Tulsa, Okla., and went into a coma for six weeks.
The tragedy led to the loss of his left eye, left eyelid, nose and lips, as well as a large volume of facial tissue including skin and muscles that control facial expressions.
Horrifying. And yet, Mr. James is a brave man who clearly sees what matters, eye or no eye:
After doctors removed the damaged eye, James said he felt that the whole-eye transplant, performed along with a partial-face transplant, would be worth attempting.
Doctors discussed the ethics of moving forward with the innovative procedure and the absence of data in large animal models to support optic nerve regrowth from a transplanted eye.
They also pointed out the potential risk of jeopardizing or losing vision to the other eye and the very low chance that the transplanted eye would have worthwhile vision, the study noted.
Even so, James, now 47, decided to proceed with the landmark surgery.
"With me trying this, even if it didn't work, the doctors were still going to learn some valuable information, so I was all for it," he told UPI. "If nothing else, it would help people down the road."
That’s how we move the ball forward. Congratulations to the medical team and best wishes to Aaron James for his future recovery!
Social media relief
Do you while away too many hours scrolling your social media feeds? Instagram, Facebook, The Site Formerly Known As Twitter. TikTok, God help you? Or even LinkedIn, the cheap box wine of social media?
The Internet will eat your brain if you let it. Fortunately, the folks at Psyche have a few tips on how to escape the Matrix:
A psychologist’s tips for getting a grip on your social media use
I have researched technology use and its pitfalls for close to 20 years and, in that time, the use of social media has developed in ways I never would have imagined. With smartphones and tablets always an arm’s length away, the boundaries between our private and public lives have become increasingly blurred. The kitchen table has become a place for networking on LinkedIn. Movie time has become a chance to check your Instagram feed. For some – and perhaps for you – it feels as if social media is taking over their lives; they want to reduce, or make better use of, the time they spend on social sites and apps. It is estimated that the billions of people around the world who use social media spend an average of 145 minutes on it per day – amounting to an astonishing total of 5.7 years across an average lifespan.
Is social media so compelling that you want to spend 5.7 years of your life doing nothing else but scrolling the socials? I think not!
Excessive social media use contributes to anxiety, depression, and even symptoms of addiction. It can disrupt your mood, your sleep, your relationships, your time for other pursuits. Having your attention on your phone while walking down the street can be dangerous, for a variety of reasons. And that’s not even getting to scrolling while driving!
So how do you kick the habit, or at least corral it into acceptable bounds?
The psychologist author of this article says: “In light of my research on technology use and the problems it can cause, I have compiled a list of tips on how to be more mindful about your use of social media – some of which I have tried to apply in my own life as well.”
I’ll give you the headline tips and my own comments, but as always, go read the linked article for the details on controlling your social media addiction.
Set goals for your social media use — Have a reason for being on the site or app. Accomplish your purpose and move on with your day!
Create dedicated space for social media use — The article means “space” in the sense of space in your schedule: “I recommend creating space for social media use (perhaps 15-30 minutes) a couple of times a day. This might be in the morning and in the early evening, though the times will vary depending on the structure of your day.” My addition would be to create an actual social media / device free space in your home. I, for example, don’t take my phone, laptop, iPad or any other electronic device into my bedroom. (Kindle Paperwhite excepted) No TV in there either. No devices = much better sleep.
Establish social media-free times — I love heading out for a walk with no phone. Ditto the gym. I also like to leave my phone and other devices in another room when reading or doing any kind of offline work or thinking through a problem.
Approach social media use mindfully — Why are you here? The various socials can be useful for many things. But if you find yourself there just to relieve boredom, I have bad news: Technology Is Saving You From Profound Levels of Boredom And It's a Problem:
The constant distraction of social media could be preventing our minds from settling into a deeper, more complete feeling of boredom, according to a new study. Which is a shame, given complete boredom can be fertile grounds for innovation.
This 'profound' level of boredom is different to the initial, superficial level of tedium we experience when waiting at a bus stop or waiting for a television program to start. Yet this initial dip into monotony can be instantly dispelled with a check of Snapchat, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok or Facebook, meaning our boredom levels never progress into a zone of creativity.
"Profound boredom may sound like an overwhelmingly negative concept but, in fact, it can be intensely positive if people are given the chance for undistracted thinking and development," says Timothy Hill, a sociologist at the University of Bath in the UK.
Embrace the boredom, for it is but the border of the land of deep thoughts and new ideas.
Unburden yourself of constant reminders — People complain about the constant stream of pop ups and notifications for emails, texts, and needy apps wanting your attention NOW. I don’t have that problem because I turn off all notifications. I’ll get to your message when I get to it.
Switch to greyscale — This is a good one! I have my phone set to switch to greyscale at 10 pm, which is a good reminder to put it down and start winding down for bed.
Do you have any other tips for managing or limiting your social media use? Let us know in the comments!
Thank you for reading!
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