Skull

• We are excited to share the upcoming season's performance-driven, fashion-forward apparel and accessory styles with our customers.
• The newest wave of apparel is comprised of 64 trend-driven, performance-based designs – 32 looks for men and 32 for women .
• This seasonably smart collection elevates classic golf wear and introduces layering essentials and innovative, lightweight, easy-to-pack outerwear.
• "We are excited to share the upcoming season's performance-driven, fashion-forward apparel and accessory styles with our customers.

• The lawsuit claims Kids Kingdom workers did not properly secure the infant after placing him in a bouncy chair.
• The seat flipped and the baby slammed his head onto hard flooring when the workers left him and other children unsupervised.
• "We knew The Button Law Firm was the right partner for this case with their proven track record against negligent daycare centers," says attorney Chris Finney of Finney Injury Law.
• As attorneys at Texas-based The Button Law Firm, they dedicate their practice to fighting for young victims and holding negligent daycare centers accountable when children under their watch are injured, abused, and neglected.

• In fact, we have two vagus nerves – a left and a right – and their optimal functioning is essential for good physical and mental health.
• Many social media posts describe ways to reset the vagus nerves to reduce stress and increase calm.
• But the vagus nerves also play a part in why socialising, sex and sports are good for our health and wellbeing.

Our rest-and-digest-and-restore system

• The vagus nerves are part of the parasympathetic nervous system, which does the opposite: rest, digest and restore.
• The sympathetic nervous system increases heart and breathing rates, slows down digestion and lowers the immune response.
• The parasympathetic nervous system via the vagus nerves is the counterbalance to our stress response.

The wandering nerve

• Vagus means wandering in Latin and is where the words vagrant, vagabond and vague come from.
• These are the tenth cranial nerves, the longest of the 12 pairs of cranial nerves that connect the brainstem and the body.
• However, about 80% of vagus nerve fibres carry information from organs back to our brain.

Can you measure the health of vagus nerves?

• Instead, heart-rate variability is used as a surrogate measure of vagus nerve activity.
• This is the slight beat-to-beat differences in heart rate that occur naturally, related to breathing.
• Many wearable devices measure heart rate and heart-rate variability and can be a useful way to monitor vagal tone.

So is there any science to back the vagal nerve hacks online?

• Cold-water immersion on the face or neck stimulates the vagus nerves via a reflex of the skin’s nerves.
• Singing and humming can increase our vagal tone because the vagus nerve innervates our larynx (voicebox).
• There are also claims simple eye movements can reset the vagus nerve.
• Carotid sinus massage can also be used clinically to increase vagus nerve activation and lower a high heart rate.

Social connection and feeling safe

Polyvagal theory suggests positive social communication and feeling safe increases vagus nerve activity. This promotes healthy growth and restoration activities in our body and increases positive emotions. The vagus nerves have a role in social communication because they are linked with our facial expressions and voice. Smiling and being smiled at can stimulate our vagus nerves.

Sport, sex and slowing down

• Slowing down with others, such as lying down next to a friend on a picnic blanket and looking at the clouds, also stimulates the vagus nerves.
• Whether it’s through mindfulness, paced breathing, sports, sex or simply smiling, increased vagal tone is important for good health and wellbeing.
• Read more:
  Forget nose spray, good sex clears a stuffy nose just as effectively — and is a lot more fun

• A lawyer and a pastor, Chamisa is the most formidable candidate against the ruling Zanu-PF led by President Emmerson Mnangagwa.
• The incumbent took over after the coup that ousted the country’s founding president Robert Mugabe in 2017.
• Chamisa is over three decades younger than his (81-year-old) opponent, and the youngest person running for president in this election.
• His youthfulness has been a major issue in this election, as it was in the last.

Youth appeal

• The World Bank puts the country’s battered economy at just under US$ 21 billion.
• Chamisa’s appeal to the youth vote has been received along partisan lines.
• For his support base of mostly young urbanites, Chamisa’s youth is his trump card.
• But will this be enough to help him win his first election as the founding leader of CCC?

Voter apathy, funding and harassment

• In addition to voter apathy, Chamisa must contend with other hurdles within the opposition movement and the usual obstacles of running for office in electoral authoritarian state.
• Chamisa founded the CCC following his forced exit from the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) in 2021.
• The married father of three had been mentored by the opposition movement’s founder, the late Morgan Tsvangirai.
• But Tsvangirai’s death in 2018 ended Chamisa’s career in the party as divisions grew between him and the old guard.
• Job Sikhala, a senior member of the opposition, has been in jail for over a year on unclear charges.

One man show

• On the social platform X, where he has more than a million followers, he regularly only shares Bible verses or ambiguous messages.
• This is a lost opportunity for a candidate counting on the youth vote.
• Many who hoped for change after Mugabe’s ouster are dismayed by the continuing economic challenges and increasing militarisation of the Zimbabwean politics.