Keto Diet Can Help You Live Longer, Researchers Say
Healthline
Has the fountain of youth been sitting on your dinner plate?
Two new scientific studies independently concluded that a ketogenic diet increased lifespan and preserved memory and motor function in mice.
For advocates of the diet, the results are another feather in their cap, but the question remains if the science really outweighs the hype for humans.
“The conclusion we draw out of this is that it’s a robust effect,” said Dr. Eric Verdin, president and chief executive officer of the Buck Institute for Research on Aging and senior author of one of the papers, in a press release. “The two studies reinforce each other because they both show the same global effect on healthspan.”
Many are taking notice.
“This is a really exciting finding and long overdue,” Susan A. Masino, PhD, a professor of applied science at Trinity College in Connecticut, told Healthline. “[Ketogenic diets] mimic the metabolic state of fasting, or caloric restriction — which has many similar benefits.”
Masino has spent years researching the ketogenic diet, metabolism, and brain health — that is, how what we eat affects our brains.

2017 Business Women’s Forum To Feature Globally-Accomplished Mountain & Rock Climber As A Workshop Presenter
Southbury’s HamletHub
Hartford’s Trinity College head field hockey and assistant lacrosse coach, Anne Parmenter, will present a workshop at the October 20th Business Women’s Forum (BWF) at the Aqua Turf Club in Plantsville titled: “Straight to the Summit: How to Get Your Team to the Top”. She will be one of five workshop presenters during the full day conference from 8:00 AM to 4:00 PM.
A native of the UK, and an avid worldwide traveler for rock climbing and mountaineering, Parmenter has climbed Aconcagua in Argentina twice, Denali, Cotopaxi, Chimborazo, Equador, Mount Blanc French Alps, Ama Dablam Himalaya and two expeditions to Mount Everest in 2004 and successfully summiting it in 2006, plus Mt Rainier Liberty Ridge in 2013. She has completed 13 marathons; London, New York, Hartford trail marathons; four Boston marathons with her last in 2014 inspired to run following the bombings in 2013.
During her BWF workshop, Parmenter will discuss the importance of group dynamics, team building and goal setting in the workplace. She will help participants understand who they are managing, and how to create a more productive and successful work environment so an entire team can reach the top together.

A Showtune Sendoff For Retiring Trinity Music Prof Gerald Moshell
Hartford Courant
“Farewell, Old World,” Cunegonde sings in the finale to the first act of the musical “Candide.”
“Kiss today goodbye. Point me toward tomorrow,” the hopeful auditioner Diana croons in “What I Did for Love” from the show “A Chorus Line.”
Both these optimistic moving-on sentiments will be heard Sept. 22 at Trinity College, during the final concert to be presented by Professor of Music Gerald Moshell.
“This is my retirement concert,” Moshell says in a phone interview Wednesday morning. “It’s a metaphor for me riding off into the sunset.”
Moshell’s been on the Trinity faculty for 41 years. He’s currently teaching a “swift survey of music history,” but in the past has taught everything from music theory to opera to a personal favorite, the works of Igor Stravinsky.
Stravinsky was the subject of his graduate dissertation at Harvard. Shortly after graduation, he says, “I came to Trinity, hired to be a choral conductor and teach history. I was able to convince the dean of faculty to let me add musical theater production to what I do. I wanted lots and lots of performances. I didn’t need it to be counted as part of my course load.”
Moshell built up a musical-theater program that was at one point producing four musicals simultaneously, for annual performance festivals that culminated with a marathon of all four shows.

Connecticut Authors Reading Series Returning For Fall Season
The Newtown Bee
After a summer hiatus the Connecticut Authors Reading Series returns to the C.H. Booth Library, introducing to readers and writers the work of authors who live in the Nutmeg State. The event will take place Saturday, September 23, from 2 to 4 pm in the library’s main meeting room. The writers include the poet Charles Rafferty and fiction writer Ethan Rutherford. The reading series is curated by Newtown author Sophfronia Scott. The writers will read from both published works and works in progress, with time in between each reading for discussion and Q&A with the audience about the craft of writing. Refreshments will be served and books available for purchase.
Ethan Rutherford’s fiction has appeared in Ploughshares, One Story, American Short Fiction, and The Best American Short Stories. His first book, The Peripatetic Coffin and Other Stories, was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction, a finalist for the John Leonard Award, received honorable mention for the PEN/Hemingway Award, was a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers selection, and was the winner of a Minnesota Book Award. Born in Seattle, he earned his MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Minnesota and now teaches Creative Writing at Trinity College. He lives in Hartford with his wife and two sons.

A UN prize-winning NGO’s remarkable efforts to save the snow leopards of Pakistan from extinction
Dawn
I was thrilled to learn that for the first time since the Equator Prize was launched by the United Nations Equator Initiative in 2002, an NGO from Pakistan has won the prestigious award for this year.
Every two years, the Equator Prize showcases from around the world community efforts that strive to relieve poverty through conservation and the sustainable use of biodiversity.
The Baltistan Wildlife Conservation and Development Organization (BWCDO) is amongst the 15 organisations from across the world that will be awarded the 2017 Equator Prize.
BWCDO is working on the ground in 17 villages in Baltistan to protect endangered snow leopards through insurance schemes and financial compensation against livestock losses that result from snow leopard attacks.
They will receive their individual $10,000 award money in a high-profile ceremony to be held in New York on September 17 after a week-long summit during the 72nd United Nations General Assembly.
Before he left for New York, I spoke to Ghulam Mohammad, the General Manger of BWCDO. “Our NGO started working back in 1999 in Skardu with the local villagers on snow leopard conservation,” he told me.
He credits Dr Shafqat Hussain, associate professor of anthropology at Trinity College in Connecticut, US for establishing Project Snow Leopard in 1999 which successfully introduced a community-based livestock insurance scheme in one village in Baltistan.
That scheme later spread to 17 other villages in the region and in recognition for which, Dr Hussain also received the Rolex award for the environment in 2006.
“He is the one who decided to give incentives to the local farmers to save the snow leopards who attacked their livestock,” Mohammad said.
Since 2007, Project Snow Leopard has been incorporated into BWCDO and Dr Hussain continues to serve as the chairman of the board of directors of the organisation.