STELLA McCARTNEY

   Stella McCartney is a British designer who runs a successful fashion house under her own name. Regarded as one of the most in-demand contemporary designers, she has made a tremendous mark on the fashion industry.

   Stella McCartney was born on September 13, 1971, in London, England, to former Beatles member Paul McCartney and American photographer and musician Linda McCartney. Although her parents took their children on tours, they wanted them to have a normal life. Thus, Stella went to a state school, where she met students from diverse backgrounds. It was there that she developed an interest in fashion. At 13, she designed her first jacket, and at 16, she took an internship with French designer Christian Lacroix, after which she served as an assistant to a tailor for a number of years.

   In the early 1990s, McCartney studied fashion at Central Saint Martins, where she thrived as a young designer. Her success there led to models such as Naomi Campbell and Kate Moss appearing on the runway in McCartney’s designs at her graduation ceremony. In 2001, she opened up her fashion house as well as her first store, both bearing her name. Since then, she has opened additional stores in major fashion capitals around the world.

   Her creations have become more diverse throughout her career and have expanded to include shoes, fragrances, and skin-care products. All of McCartney’s products have a strong commitment to ethically produced ingredients. Like her mother, McCartney is a devoted supporter of animal rights and she maintains a “no animal” policy.

   McCartney’s status as the preeminent British fashion designer was evident when, in 2012, she was invited to be the chief designer for Adidas’s line of apparel for the United Kingdom’s Olympic athletes. Her cultural importance in the UK was further reinforced when she was awarded an OBE (Order of the British Empire) from the Queen in 2013 for her contribution to fashion. After receiving this honor, McCartney was the obvious choice to design the dress Meghan Markle wore to the reception of her wedding to Prince Harry.

   McCartney now lives in London with her husband and four children. Along with her fashion work, she runs the Stella McCartney Cares Foundation, a charity focusing on breast cancer, which her own mother died of. For her work in this field, she has received the prestigious Woman of Courage Award.

ARE HIIT WORKOUTS GOOD FOR YOU?

   People who take part in high-intensity interval training, or HIIT, have a much greater risk of injury than those doing regular exercises. Injuries were also more prevalent among white males between the ages of 20 and 39.

   HIIT is a type of cardiovascular workout in which subjects alternate brief but intense periods of exercise with less-intense rest periods, usually until they are too exhausted to continue. Promising to help people attain their fitness goals in less time, HIIT workouts have exploded in popularity over the past decade.

   Researchers analyzed records in the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System from 2007 to 2016 and counted close to 4 million injuries resulting from HIIT exercises. These exercises included those performed without equipment. The researchers also noted a steady increase of an average of 50,000 injuries per year coinciding with a growth in interest in HIIT as measured by the number of Google searches for HIIT that occurred over the same period.

   Of the total number of injuries, nearly 60 percent happened in males, and of that number, close to 40 percent were in their 20s or 30s. The most common types of injuries involved knee and ankle sprains, but others included shoulder dislocations, nerve damage, internal organ injuries, concussions, and puncture wounds. Repetitive overload in the knee area also increased the likelihood of developing osteoarthritis. Furthermore, during the period studied, the number of injuries rose by 144 percent overall, alongside a rise in HIIT interest of 274 percent.

   From the study, researchers have concluded that although HIIT may be an effective form of exercise, people who practice HIIT workouts should be concerned about the potential for adverse effects, indicating that injuries were most often due to poor form and muscle overuse. They acknowledge that HIIT confers benefits such as improved cardio respiratory fitness, lean muscle mass development, and fat loss. However, they recommend that people understand how preexisting conditions and physical weaknesses can increase the possibility of injuries. To prevent injury, it is important that people first consult a physician and perform neuromuscular training that focuses on strength, jumping, and balance.

HEARING AIDS

Hearing aids are small devices placed in or around people’s ears to help them detect sound better. They do not help users recover lost hearing ability but merely make sounds easier to hear. Modern hearing aids make sounds louder by magnifying sound vibrations entering the ear.

The history of hearing aids began in the 17th century when the ear trumpet was invented. The ear trumpet was a small device shaped like a horn. Ear trumpets are rarely used now because they have been largely replaced by electronic hearing aids. These were developed along with the telephone and microphone in the 19th century. The first commercially sold electric hearing aids were made by the Siemens Company in 1913. One drawback of these was that they were not very portable. Unlike modern hearing aids, which are worn on or in the ear, these were large devices that were placed on a surface like a table. They had two wires attached to earphones, and the listener held these up to each ear.

There are two main types of electronic hearing aids. The first is analog, which converts sound waves into electrical signals that can be magnified.  With analog hearing aids, all sounds are magnified jointly. Therefore, a person’s speech will be magnified, but the background noise will be as well. Consequently, background sounds may interfere with the listener’s ability to focus on specific sounds. The second kind of electronic hearing aid is digital. Digital hearing aids can distinguish different sound categories, and digital codes can be altered to highlight some sounds and ignore others. This allows the users to focus on the sounds they want to hear and disregard others. Thus, while both types of hearing aids can help a user’s hearing problems, digital ones offer greater sound quality and flexibility, and are also more expensive.

Many people benefit from hearing aids. Natural hearing ability usually declines gradually with age. However, hearing loss can also occur suddenly as a result of interactions with medication or exposure to loud noise. However, with hearing aids, most people can partially or fully restore their hearing ability.

Pedro Ramirez

Intern

Prospect Advertising

Dear Pedro,

We’ve been really impressed by the work you’ve done for us since you joined Prospect Advertising and, as your six-month internship is coming to an end soon, we are excited to offer you the permanent position of advertising assistant.

Your duties as advertising assistant would be similar to those you have had as an intern. They will include providing administrative assistance to the advertising team, carrying out design work, and filing paperwork. Like now, you are to update the company’s website first thing every morning with content about our most recent projects.

However, you will be given more opportunities to present your ideas to the team, will be asked to attend brainstorming sessions and contribute ad concepts, and will occasionally be required to come to client meetings. We are also going to hire another intern, and you are going to be responsible for training and managing his or her time. Finally, the job should help in the development of your skill set, as you can join our in-company training programs.

The salary for the position will be $47,700 a year, and you can take up to 20 vacation days. You will start on March the 1st, which is the day after your internship ends. You don’t need to submit an application or have any interviews. We understand that you may be surprised by this letter, considering we don’t usually offer permanent positions to interns. But we do hope that you accept the offer and embark on the next stage of your career at our firm.

Kind regards,

Patrick Woolf

Advertising Manager

Prospect Advertising