This release includes the final About page design. It also contains fixes for:
Proper translation of the recovery mode notification emails (#47093).
Improvements to the way Site Health works with multisite installs (#47084).
Plugin and Theme Developers
Please test your plugins and themes against WordPress 5.2 and update the Tested up to version in the readme to 5.2. If you find compatibility problems, please be sure to post to the support forums so we can figure those out before the final release.
If you think you’ve found a bug, you can post to the Alpha/Beta area in the support forums. We’d love to hear from you! If you’re comfortable writing a reproducible bug report, file one on WordPress Trac, where you can also find a list of known bugs.
It’s the start of May and the release is coming. We all give a cheer!
You may have seen a much-circulated story, allegedly posted on CNN’s website, in which a Cornell University student claims to have lost 37 pounds through a diet regimen consisting of apple cider vinegar and supplements of Garcinia cambogia, a type of tropical fruit.
If it is not immediately obvious to you, this is an internet ad for weight loss supplements, not a CNN story. The woman interviewed in the story doesn’t exist. Apple cider vinegar and Garcinia cambogia do not do what the ad claims they do, and can in fact be harmful when taken as suggested.
Everything about this ad is a lie. It lies about big things that could hurt people’s health and it lies about stupid little things like celebrity diets. It is a lie smothered in lies and served open-faced on a bed of lies. Let’s unpack this.
Claim: The story is from “CNN Nutrition”
Fact: A good way to tell where a story is from is to look at where the story is from. If I were to write, “This story you are reading on www.gov.uk represents official UK policy on phony diet ads,” you could look at the top of your browser and see that you are in fact on qz.com and I am lying. CNN’s URL is cnn.com, not independant-research.com, and that is not how “independent” is spelled.
Claim: “By Suzanne Pischner”
Fact: There is no Suzanne Pischner on LinkedIn or Twitter. Her byline appears only on other fishy-looking weight loss ads, including one purporting to be from TMZ posted under the URL trompe l’oeil tmzf.itness.co. Suzanne, if you are real and reading this, please send a notarized birth certificate to hi@qz.com.
Claim: “Amanda Haughman, a student at Cornell University, was able to drop 37lbs off her waist in 1 month without ever using a dime of her own money.”
This is not Amanda Haughman.
There is no Amanda Haughman in Cornell’s current student or alumni directories. In December, a nearly identical ad for a product called “Premiere Garcinia Cambogia” labeled a completely different woman’s photo as “Cornell student Amanda Haughman.” A lifestyle blogger pointed out that the photo was in fact of a Scottish woman named Seana Forbes, and was taken from a YouTube ad for a fitness app.
Claim: “Since the study, Amanda shared the TrimGenesis Garcinia and apple cider vinegar combination with her close friend, Mark, who had also been struggling with his weight.”
Yes, this is Mark, but not that Mark.
Fact: The image of the man identified as Mark was lifted from a 2015 story in the Daily Star, a UK daily tabloid, about a man named Mark Smithers. Here a pellet of truth is dropped in the rabbit hutch of lies: there is a Mark and he did lose weight. But he did not use this product and is not a close friend of Amanda, who is not real.
Claim: “We sat down with Amanda”
Fact: Amanda can’t sit. She has no lower extremities. She doesn’t exist.
Claim: “I was able to find a radio interview where [Melissa] McCarthy credited her entire weight loss to combining TrimGenesis Garcinia with apple cider vinegar.”
Right person, wrong dates.
Fact: The photo labeled “2016” is from 2015; the one labeled “2015” is from 2014. No such interview with McCarthy exists. In actual interviews, McCarthy has politely rebuffed repeated requests to talk about if or how she may have lost weight, for the same reason US speaker of the house Paul Ryan has never released his colonoscopy reports—it’s nobody’s business and it’s a kind of weird thing to ask about in the first place.
Claim: “TrimGenesis Garcinia contains the naturally occurring ingredient, hydroxycitcric acid, which boosts weight loss by blocking excess body fat production while increasing resting metabolism by more than 130%.”
This is where TrimGenesis’s claims go from absurd to potentially dangerous. Hydroxycitric acid (not “hydroxycitcric,” as above) is a type of citric acid found in many tropical plants, including Garcinia cambogia. In the world of unregulated supplements, “natural” is an often-abused term that has no bearing on how safe or effective a product is. Arsenic is naturally occurring. Mercury is naturally occurring. Nature makes a lot of stuff. Humans aren’t supposed to eat it all.
A 1998 study in the Journal of the American Medical Association found no significant difference in weight loss between participants who took Garcinia cambogia and those who took a placebo. A 2011 meta-review in the Journal of Obesity found that while there was some evidence of short-term weight loss in patients using the supplement, those that took it were also twice as likely to have bad gastrointestinal side effects. Another 2013 review of 17 studies deemed Garcinia cambogia safe for human consumption, but concluded that its effect on weight loss was unclear.
The unproven benefits of Garcinia cambogia have not stopped assorted hucksters from pushing it as a weight loss wonder drug; television personality Mehmet Oz called it “a revolutionary fat buster” on a 2012 show.
“I don’t get why you need to say this stuff ‘cause you know it’s not true,” Claire McCaskill, a Democratic senator from Missouri, said at a 2014 Senate hearing on Oz’s false claims (quoted in this actual CNN story).
“I do personally believe in the items that I talk about on my show. I passionately study them,” Oz, a trained surgeon, responded. This is an acceptable defense for an amateur Bigfoot hunter, but not a scientist.
Claim: “TrimGenesis Garcinia with apple cider vinegar has been clinically proven to…”
Fact: Several claims follow; they are all bogus. There have been zero clinical studies on the effects of apple cider vinegar combined with Garcinia cambogia.
The ad never discusses the supposed benefits of drinking the apple cider vinegar, though here “Suzanne Pischner” may be relying readers’ previous familiarity with the subject. A long-time favorite of health food advocates, apple cider vinegar is increasingly popular as a home remedy for maladies including sore throats, high cholesterol, high blood sugar, acne, and jellyfish stings.
“There is ample scientific evidence” that vinegar does in fact help control blood sugar, if taken as one tablespoon diluted in a cup of water at the start of a meal, says Carol Johnston, a professor and associate director at Arizona State University’s School of Nutrition and Health Promotion. “The evidence on weight loss is meager but there are hints of this—particularly in the rat model,” she added. “If vinegar impacts body weight, it is very subtle and not what most have in mind when they start a weight loss trial.”
The active ingredient in apple cider vinegar that helps control blood sugar (and possibly weight) is acetic acid, which is found in all vinegar. And while drinking one to two teaspoons in water as recommended by Cornell/Harvard/MSU/National University of Singapore grad Amanda Haughman probably isn’t harmful to most people, it’s worth remembering that vinegar is an acid, and drinking acid straight can be dangerous.
Ultimately, the ad serves apple cider vinegar as a folksy side dish to a weight loss supplement that could have harmful side effects. The US Food and Drug Administration says weight loss supplements, including those purporting to contain Garciniacambogia, often contain undisclosed ingredients, including active drugs.
The danger of weight-loss related fake news is that—like their political counterparts—they make ridiculous claims that can distract from the fact that they are still lies masquerading as the truth, and could end up hurting someone.
In memory of Amanda Haughman (1995-2017), a victim of the Bowling Green Massacre.
Swollen feet is a common problem, especially after a long tiring day, when you take off your shoes and notice that your feet have literally doubled up due and finding a quick fix for that becomes difficult. well, fret not we have found some amazing remedies to cure swollen feet.
This painless swelling is quite common and can happen to anyone, but is most common among pregnant women. If you too get swollen feet quite often, it’s best to keep some home remedies in mind. The swelling is caused when excess fluids accumulate in the feet. Finding out the reason behind the swelling is more important as it can be caused due to numerous reasons, which includes ill-fitting shoes, wearing high heels all day, desk-bound lifestyle, sport injuries, obesity and infections among other things.
If you get swollen feet quite often, it’s best to get it checked by a professional because it might be a sign of serious health problems but if it’s not due to any serious medical problem, home remedies can become your saving grace.
Try out these home remedies and see which one’s best for you!
Compression Socks
The best remedy is to prevent the swelling from happening in the first place. Compression socks are super helpful for this. These socks provide compression, as the name states and prevent body fluids to accumulate in your feet. The blood in your feet gets a boost and it circulates well, thus, helping ease the pain and ache in your feet. Wear these socks whenever you’re out and it is most ideal to wear it in the morning and take off in the evening.
Epsom Salt
This home remedy is the best and most common one. It’s been used for centuries to cure all types of pains and can be found in any drug store near your house. Soak your feet in a tub filled with water and Epsom for 15-20 minutes. This salt contains magnesium sulphate which, when dissolved in water, gets into your body through the skin and relieves pain and swelling. It also relaxes your body which leads to an increase in the blood flow. Good blood circulation can help you avoid swollen feet in the future.
Weight loss
People who are overweight or suffer from obesity often get swollen feet. It’s because of the pressure that their feet in under, therefore it is important to reduce the blood circulation in that area. The strain on the feet along with bad blood flow can lead to swelling. A good BMI should be maintained, so consult your doctor and take a journey towards healthy weight loss to avoid recurrent swollen feet among other problems.
Contrast Bath Therapy
For this remedy, all you need is water. For your swollen feet, contrast bath therapy is done by immersing the feet in a tub of hot water (not boiling). Soak for 10 minutes and quickly switch to cold water and soak for another 10 minutes. Lastly, switch back to the hot water and soak for 5 more minutes. The contrast in temperatures helps in dilating and contacting the blood vessels which results in smoother and better blood circulation and relieving you from swollen feet.
Baking Soda and Rice Water
Both these ingredients are okay for swollen feet on their own, but a blend of these two can relieve your swelling instantly. You can either prepare a bucket with these two ingredients or make a paste with their mixture. Use them for 15-20 minutes to relieve swollen feet. The baking soda provides the anti-inflammatory properties that help in bringing down the inflammation and also relives the pain; The rice water sponges up the fluid accumulation in the feet. Together, they stimulate the blood circulation, thereby helping alleviate the swelling.
Lemon Water
Drinking lemon water every day can help eradicate the chances of getting swollen feet all together as it flushes out the toxins and the excess fluid present in the body. The excess fluid is flushed out so the risk of getting swollen feet is out the window.
Cinnamon and lemons
This overnight soothing sensation to mitigate swollen feet is great for pregnant women as they can’t help but deflect the possibility of getting them and suffer for longer duration. Create a paste with cinnamon, lemon, milk and olive oil and apply a generous layer over your swollen feet. Leave it overnight to soothe the pain and swelling. The lemon, cinnamon and olive oil have anti-inflammatory properties along with many other benefits and the overnight application helps the skin soak up all these beneficial properties. It eases the pain, brings down the swelling while nourishing the skin.
Cucumbers
You must have heard that they are great for your swollen eyes, but did you know that they can also provide relief to your swollen feet? The name cucumber rings a soothing bell in our minds and for all the right reasons. Since drinking water is one of the ways to help reduce the chances of getting swollen feet and cucumbers are 90% water, they are an obvious relief method. Other than the water content, cucumbers also have antioxidants and anti-inflammatory properties. It helps flush out the excess fluids, thus, reducing the swelling. Other than increasing your fluid intake with the cucumbers, one way to use it is to cut slices and place them on the swollen area and lightly wrap a bandage over it to keep them in place. You can also extract cucumber juice and apply them to the swollen feet.
This past month has been filled with anticipation as the community builds up towards a big new release, plans some important events, and builds new tools to grow the future of the project.
WordPress 5.2 Almost Due for Release
WordPress 5.2 is due for release on May 7 with many new features included for developers and end-users alike. The Field Guide for the release provides a lot of information about what is in it and what you can expect, including a few key elements:
Site Health Check
One of the most highly anticipated features for v5.2 is the Site Health Check. This feature adds two new pages in the admin interface to help end users maintain a healthy site through common configuration issues and other elements that go along with having a robust online presence. It also provides a standardized location for developers to add debugging information.
Fatal Error Recovery Mode
The Fatal Error Recovery Mode feature was originally planned for the 5.1 release but was delayed to patch up some last-minute issues that arose. This feature will help site-owners recover more quickly from fatal errors that break the display or functionality of their site that would ordinarily require code or database edits to fix.
Privacy and Accessibility Updates
Along with the headlining features mentioned above, there are some important enhancements to the privacy and accessibility features included in Core. These include some important developer-focused changes to how privacy policy pages are displayed and user data is exported, as well as moving to more semantic markup for admin tabs and other improvements such as switching post format icons to drop-down menus on post list tables, improved admin toolbar markup, and contextual improvements to archive widget drop-down menu.
On 11 May 2019, the fourth WordPress Translation Day will take place. This is a 24-hour global event dedicated to the translation of all things WordPress, from Core to themes, plugins to marketing.
Over the course of 24 hours, WordPress communities will meet to translate WordPress into their local languages and watch talks and sessions broadcast on wptranslationday.org. During the previous WordPress Translation Day, 71 local events took place in 29 countries, and even more communities are expected to take part this time.
Since the initial proposal for a Block Library that would be made available from inside the block editor, work has been done to put together some designs for how this would look. Since then the project has received a more direct focus with a planned out scope and timeline.
The project is being managed on GitHub and people interested in contributing are encouraged to get involved there. You can also keep up to date by following the Design team blog and joining the #design channel in the Making WordPress Slack group.
Further Reading:
The results from the 5.0 release retrospective survey have been published – this is the first time this kind of open retrospective has been done for a WordPress release and the results provide valuable insight into the project and its contributors.
The team behind the WordPress Coding Standards has released version 2.1, including some very useful new sniffs.
PHP Internals News: Episode 8: Deprecating Short Open Tags
London, UK
Thursday, May 2nd 2019, 09:08 BST
In this eight episode of "PHP Internals News" I talk to George Maynard (Twitter, GitHub) about deprecating PHP's short open tags (<?), and getting into PHP internals development.
Of late, you can find people signed on to one or more dating apps. Whether it be actual interest, casual flings or just plain boredom, people are busy swiping. But a closer look at the dating app life reveals the darker side to it. Harikrupa Krishnan, 21, says, “While using dating apps, you only really look at the pictures. The two- to three-lined bio that accompanies one’s profile picture does not give you much information. So basically, if you flip the situation, you’re openly getting rejected by someone for the way you look, and it affects your confidence and self- esteem in ways you never thought possible.”
Rejection affects self esteem
Psychiatrist Dr Vikram Prabhu says, “Dating apps themselves do not cause depression, rather it is the individual’s level of vulnerability that causes depression. The anxiety that people feel because of these dating apps can lead to depression.’’ He explains that different expectations usually create feelings of sadness and rejection. “People usually go on to these online relationships with different expectations, and are let down and disappointed with how it turns out. It is about how an individual is able to cope with the disappointment that sets in, which may make them vulnerable to depression,” explains Dr Prabhu.
Of how the younger generation uses dating apps, Harikrupa adds, “My generation thinks dating apps are the only way to get physical with someone — so, when someone looks for something serious, they may not always find it.”
Dealing with rejection
“One must try to begin to deal with rejection and depression by first building resilience. Life has its ups and downs, and we should be able to deal with both with some level of maturity. You must remember that this is a situational rejection and not a rejection of you as a person. We should accept the present and be optimistic about the future,” advises Dr Prabhu.
Susheel Varma [name changed], 19, adds that we should look on the brighter side, “Dating apps can be a sinkhole of self-pity, but I think we need to be reminded that there’s much more to a person than what an app can convey.”
Dr Prabhu leaves us with the important step of seeking out help if one is unable to adequately deal with anxiety and depression, “If you have tried ways to calm down and feel happier, but still feel that things are not looking good, please seek professional help. Personal well-being should be of utmost importance.”
Tips to manage anxiety
Take deep breaths, count slowly from one to five, while inhaling and exhaling
Write down your thoughts and feelings. Visualising them can help manage them
Take a walk and focus on the details of the things you see around you. Getting your mind temporarily off what is troubling you can help ease tension and anxiety
