Today’s Big Story

Blink. Then Read This.

Eye doctors say we should look away from screens every 20 minutes

Blink a few times. Feels good, doesn’t it? We really don’t do it as much as we should, especially when we’re staring at our screens. Now, try to focus on something 20 feet away for 20 seconds. If you do that every 20 minutes, you're following what eye doctors call the 20-20-20 rule.

There’s no getting around how important glowing screens are to our daily lives. Loads of Americans work and study in front of computers, phones and tablets. All day. The latest data suggests we're spending more than 17 years of our adult lives online. That could make us very informed (and up on the latest memes), but it’s not exactly great news for our eyeballs.

Why? Put simply: When we stare at a screen, we get distracted and forget to blink regularly. So then our eyes dry out. “It affects us every decade of our life that we age more because the amount of tears we produce decreases,” Raj Maturi, an ophthalmologist and spokesperson for the American Academy of Ophthalmology, told Axios.

Incorporating the 20-20-20 rule briefly jolts people away from devices and redirects their focus on something else, relaxing eye muscles and encouraging normal, hydrating blinks. Anecdotally, Maturi says his patients who follow this rule are also “generally happier.”

While some studies have focused on the rule, there isn't extensive data to back up its benefits. Still, doctors, the American Academy of Ophthalmology and the American Optometric Association endorse it as a good rule of thumb and recommend it as a way to reduce daily eye strain.

Are Frequent-Flyer Programs Fair?

Airline rewards programs are now under scrutiny by the government

Customer reward programs rarely ever seem fair. How many coffees must I buy to get enough stamps for one free cup?! But this seems serious: The Department of Transportation said it’s opening an investigation into airline frequent flyer programs, accusing airlines of potentially illegal points devaluations and other accounting techniques that it says are not consumer-friendly.

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg wrote to the CEOs of American, Delta, Southwest and United on Thursday, asking each for a report on policies, fees and other features of their loyalty program. Consumers often complain that airlines raise the number of points needed to earn a free flight and limit the number of seats that can be purchased with points.

Rewards points earned on trips or from using an airline's branded credit card are an important form of currency that travelers may redeem for flights, upgrades and other products and services. But the airlines have sole power to determine how much they are worth. “Our goal is to ensure consumers are getting the value that was promised to them,” said Buttigieg. “Which means validating that these programs are transparent and fair.” The formal probe comes nearly nine months after the DOT first launched a preliminary investigation into potential unfair or deceptive practices within the programs and follows a hearing on rewards programs in Washington, D.C., that was held jointly by the DOT and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau this spring.

The New “Rush Hour”?

Working 10-to-4 is the new 9-to-5, commuting data shows

My apologies to Dolly Parton, but one of her most beloved songs may need an update. A Global Traffic Scorecard for 2023, released earlier this summer by traffic-data analysis firm INRIX Inc., says that traffic patterns reveal a “new normal”—basically, a workday that's no longer a 9-to-5, but more like a 10-to-4.

With the rise of more flexible work arrangements and others going to the office for only part of the day, rush hour ain’t what it used to be. But maybe that’s good thing, right? Less traffic and stress with more freedom. Of course, now there is a “midday rush hour,” the INRIX report found, with almost as many trips to and from the office being made at noon as there are at 9 a.m. and 5 p.m.

According to CNBC, something known as “coffee badging”—the habit of only going to work for a few hours a day—has become widely accepted, or at least tolerated in many American workplaces. More than half of hybrid employees admitted to checking in at the office and then promptly checking out, according to a separate 2023 survey by Owl Labs, a company that makes videoconferencing devices. And it’s costing some companies a lot—inactive and disengaged employees account for approximately $1.9 trillion in lost productivity nationwide.

Common Food Dye Turns Skin See-Through

Scientific discovery echoes plot of H.G. Wells’ ‘The Invisible Man’

Don’t try this at home. At least, not yet. But a team of researchers has managed to make living tissue transparent using a common food dye. The discovery could yield a range of innovations in medicine, from managing muscle injuries to spotting cancers. The findings, published Thursday in Science, makes use of a concept once relegated to science fiction: making soft tissues like skin transparent safely and temporarily.

How’d they do it? Well, the reason we can’t see through most objects is because light scatters off them. To overcome this, the team needed to develop a technology that would match up the refractive indices of different soft tissues, allowing light to pass through those structures unimpeded. The team used a food dye called tartrazine, or FD & C Yellow 5 to do this—the dye is used in snack chips, candy coating, ice cream and baked goods, and the molecules are particularly good at matching up those refractive indices. When light hit objects affected with the dye, instead of scattering off those structures, it carried on its way, thereby rendering the tissues transparent.

The breakthrough could revolutionize biomedical research. While it’s far from human trials, the concept may someday have helpful medical applications. The doctors propose it could potentially assist in the early detection of skin cancer and make laser-based tattoo removal more straightforward. It could also make veins more visible for drawing blood or administering fluids via a needle.

A Weekend Pairing

‘The Perfect Couple’ + a Mailly Brut Grand Cru

Adapted from the novel of the same name, The Perfect Couple is a whodunit murder mystery streaming now on Netflix. Nothing ruins a beautiful, rich Nantucket family’s wedding party like a dead body. The murder shakes up the entire wedding party and threatens to unravel the pent up secrets of the Winbury family. Nicole Kidman stars as the family matriarch Greer while Liev Schreiber plays her husband.

The rest of cast is pretty impressive, too. You’ll remember Meghann Fahy from The White Lotus, along with Eve Hewson, Jack Reynor and Dakota Fanning. When the Chief of Police Dan Carter (Michael Beach) receives a call that a body has been found, he initially attempts to wrap the investigation up as swiftly as possible to benefit the powerful Winbury family. Yet he must confront the truth when Det. Nikki Henry (Donna Lynne Champlin) is brought in from the mainland to work the case. As the pair quickly discover, there is much more to the Winburys than their flawless facade. 

Kindness is a gift.