Three Things Thursday

Another week, another edition of Three Things Thursday, the purpose of which is to “share three things from the previous week that made you smile or laugh or appreciate the awesome of your life.”

Items in the News

Don’t worry, there’s not a presidential debate or Trump article among them.

Seattle Aquarium trains otter to use inhaler for her asthma

The Seattle Aquarium believes it has diagnosed the first case of a sea otter with asthma and is training the animal to use an inhaler.

A veterinarian is training a one-year-old sea otter to use an inhaler to treat asthma diagnosed when smoke from nearby forest fires made breathing difficult. The otter, named Mishka, uses the same medication that humans use.

Dr. Lesanna Lahner believes that lack of genetic diversity may have contributed to Mishka’s asthma. When sea otters became extinct in Washington State 40 years ago, Alaskan sea otters were moved south to repopulate Puget Sound.

Eating Healthy Foods May Lower Depression Risk

Here’s yet another reason to eat a healthy diet.

Research from a large new study suggests that people who follow a healthy diet to a moderate or large extent have lower risk for developing depression than people who don’t follow similar dietary guidelines. The study defined a healthy diet as one high in vegetables, fruits, nuts, and fish, and low in fast food and processed meats.

The study followed 15,000 university graduates in Spain for 8.5 years.

“Even a moderate adherence to these healthy dietary patterns … was associated with an important reduction in the risk of developing depression,” [study author Almudena] Sanchez-Villegas told Live Science.

These results, published in the journal BMC Medicine, support the results of Sanchez-Villegas’s earlier research, reported in 2006 and 2009, that found a lower rate of depression among people who followed the Mediterranean diet. The Mediterranean diet is defined as one high in vegetables, fruits, fish, and olive oil; this diet is often used as a standard for the definition of a healthy diet. The new research studied participants whose diet closely resembles the Mediterranean diet but not not require strict adherence to it.

Coming Soon to Facebook: A ‘Dislike’ Button

Finally!

Sometimes people on Facebook post sad news or details of some misfortune, such as “I have a bad cold and don’t feel like getting out of bed this morning.” I certainly hesitate to “like” such posts, because I don’t like the fact that the person is sick or suffering from some other bad occurrence. But I would like to respond in some way that shows empathy, concern, and support. So far, the only solution I’ve found to this dilemma is to post a comment containing a frowny face emoticon, 😦 . I’ve often wished for the ability to choose a “dislike” button.

Now the New York Times reports that Mark Zuckerberg, co-founder and chief executive officer of Facebook, says the company is close to testing a “dislike” button similar to the “like” button:

Facebook users — there are now 1.5 billion, the company says — have long requested a way to express negative emotions or empathy with something sad or tragic posted on the social network, he said.

According to the article, some critics of Facebook don’t like this idea because, according to one user, “There is already enough hate on Facebook and social media.”

I’m not quite sure how this logic works. If I “like” someone’s report of sickness or death of a loved one because I don’t have the option of disliking the news but don’t want to ignore it, isn’t that hateful? Wouldn’t it be better if I could click a button to show that I dislike the bad news?

What do you think? What do you do about “liking” bad news on Facebook?