It's a great year to be a flu virus

The illness is widespread in nearly every state, this year's vaccine is barely doing anything to stop it, and the subtype going around hits especially hard.

Ted S. Warren/AP Mentally impaired, unable to speak, they’re a rapist’s perfect target In Charlotte, N.C., a mother gave her daughter a bath and found bruising. In Missouri, a doctor discovered an intellectually disabled woman was pregnant. And in Washington, a new employee says she walked in on her boss pressing a resident’s legs against her chest, his pants and underwear around his knees. Unpublished data suggests people with intellectual disabilities are sexually assaulted seven times more frequently than those without disabilities — and that likely misses many attacks. Cases where the victim struggles to communicate are particularly hard to spot. Justin Sullivan/Getty Images Taste the rainbow, literally: Food colorings trick your brain into sensing flavors Big candy companies long have counted on it: Color a treat orange, and you don’t have to spend nearly as much making it taste that way. “What I like to talk about is Skittles,” says neuropsychologist Don Katz. “Skittles have different fragrances and different colors — but they all taste exactly the same.” Researchers have designed color-swapping experiments around the idea that have sent subjects’ tastebuds haywire. Daniel Acker/Bloomberg via Getty Images You may want to lay down for this: It's the worst flu season in years The illness running rampant in most of the U.S. is a particularly nasty version of influenza that is guaranteed to make you want to curl up in a corner, and the vaccine is only 10 percent effective against it. But doctors say to take the usual precautions, and to get the vaccine anyway — a little protection is better than none against an illness that already had killed 106 by mid-December. "We're really in historic territory," says one pediatrician, "and I just don't know when it's going to stop." Tovia Smith/NPR Images In the war against distraction, teachers deploy a new weapon: Solitary confinement for cell phones It's hard for social studies to win out against Snapchat, but a Massachusetts school is testing a new solution: having each kid lock their phone away in a pouch as soon as they come in the door. One math teacher says that her students seem more engaged now, and that she spends much less time repeating herself. Another way to tell it's working: Listening to the kids in phone withdrawal complain Kholood Eid for NPR In online dating, race secretly plays a big — and frustrating — role Interracial marriages may be rising alongside online dating, but data from sites like OK Cupid shows certain demographics — African-American women, Asian-American men — have an especially hard time finding their bae. "People tend to be often attracted to the people that they are familiar with," says the site's top marketer. "And in a segregated society, that can be harder in certain areas." One possible solution: Trying to shift users' focus to other attributes. You received this message because you're subscribed to our Best of NPR emails. |  Unsubscribe  |  Privacy Policy | NPR 1111 N. CAPITOL ST. NE WASHINGTON DC 20002