Elizabeth Cuthrell, a Manhattan-based film producer, used to work in an ergonomic office space: Comfortable desk chair, monitor at eye level, external keyboard. Then came COVID-19. During stay-at-home she worked on a laptop from a wicker chair, or sometimes on a couch with “cushions like marshmallows.” A month later she felt pain in her neck, wrist and shoulders that sent her to a chiropractor. “It’s hard to quantify, but this has been a really, really big issue for a lot of my patients,” said Karen Erickson, the chiropractor who treated Cuthrell. Chiropractors report a surge of injuries and discomfort stemming from the nationwide push to work from home, as millions of workers have spent months clacking away on sofas and beds and awkward kitchen counters. Out with ergonomics, in with hunching over laptops. According to an April Facebook survey from the American Chiropractic Association, 92 per cent of chiropractors (out of 213 respondents) said that patients report more neck … [Read more...] about The pandemic of work-from-home injuries: Causes and solutions
Piano guitar
Oregon wildfire melts trucks, leaves warlike destruction in wake
PHOENIX, Oregon: Matt Manson stared at the burned-out corpse of his pick-up truck on Friday, which sat on a blackened driveway in front of a smoldering pile of rubble that once was his house. Like other residents of the small agricultural town of Phoenix, Oregon, he was in shock as he returned to his neighbourhood and saw how fast the Alameda Drive wildfire had engulfed his home and upended his life. "The fire melted the motor right out of my truck - it drained down the driveway," said Manson, a 43-year-old construction worker. "I lost everything. I lost all my tools. My truck. I can't work. I lost US$30,000 worth of guitars. All gone." READ: 16 dead in US wildfires as cool weather brings hope Manson, who now owns only a backpack with a change of clothes, struggled to find the words to describe how the fire had ravaged the town that sits near the green Siskiyou Mountains, about 210 miles south of Portland. Trees lining his street were now just blackened, skeletal remains. … [Read more...] about Oregon wildfire melts trucks, leaves warlike destruction in wake
Inaugural Hayao Miyazaki exhibit at Academy Museum to show his ‘creative process’
The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures is finally opening its doors in Los Angeles in April with an exhibit celebrating the works of the legendary Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki. Envisioned as a journey through his six-decade career, it's the first of its kind in North America and will have more than 300 objects on display, organisers said Thursday (Sep 10). Some have never been shown outside of Japan. "Miyazaki's genius is his power of remembering what he sees," said Studio Ghibli co-founder Toshio Suzuki. "It is our hope that visitors will be able to experience the entire scope of Hayao Miyazaki's creative process through this exhibition." Curator Jessica Niebel said she hopes that it will appeal to both the most avid Miyazaki fans and newcomers. Visitors will enter the temporary exhibit, which is organised thematically into seven sections, following Mei, the four-year-old heroine of My Neighbor Totoro, into the "Tree Tunnel" gallery. From there, they will emerge into the … [Read more...] about Inaugural Hayao Miyazaki exhibit at Academy Museum to show his ‘creative process’