That's Happy Meal in Spanish, but you already know that if you've been paying attention to TV ads. A new report says the fast food industry spent $5 billion on advertising their products in 2019, most of which targeted Black and Hispanic youth.

That's $400 million more than in 2012. Spending on Spanish advertising in 2019 increased 33% since 2012. Black youth saw 75% more fast food ads in 2019 than white peers, according to Nielsen data.

Body of Knowledge

An infected appendix doesn't actually burst. It just gets clogged and leaks fluids that can infect other tissues. Nonetheless, a "burst appendix" is a medical emergency because, untreated, it can cause a life-threatening abdominal infection called peritonitis.

Get Me That, Stat!

The U.S. government is investing more than $3 billion toward finding new antiviral pills to treat COVID-19. More than $1 billion will go toward creating new antiviral drug discovery centers whose primary purpose will be developing therapies for coronaviruses before expanding to other viruses that could trigger pandemics.

Stories for the Waiting Room

Over the course of life, you shed many, many layers of skin. So why do tattoos stick around? It's a consequence of your immune system. The puncture of the tattoo needle causes inflammation in the dermis, the skin's middle layer. In response, white blood cells known as macrophages rush in to help heal the damage. These macrophages "eat" the dye and can pass it to newer macrophages when they die, so the pigment is essentially transferred from one cell to another. Any leftover pigment is soaked up by fibroblasts, which are longer-lasting skin cells that don't regenerate as often.

Doc Talk

Chartomegaly: a patient with a large and growing medical chart.

Best Medicine

A very angry woman stormed up to the receptionist's desk at a doctor's office.

"Someone stole my wig while I was having surgery yesterday," she complained.

The doctor came out and tried to calm her down. "I assure you that no one on my staff would have done such a thing," he said. "Why do you think it was taken here?"

"After the operation, I noticed the wig I was wearing was cheap-looking and ugly."

"I think," explained the surgeon gently, "that means your cataract operation was a success."

Observation

"To your good health old friend, may you live for a thousand years, and I be there to count them." — English novelist Robert Smith Surtees (1805-1864)

Ig Nobel Apprised

The Ig Nobel Prizes celebrate achievements that make people laugh, then think. A look at real science that's hard to take seriously, and even harder to ignore.

In 1995, the Ig Nobel Prize in Medicine went to a trio of researchers for their study, "The Effects of Unilateral Forced Nostril Breathing on Cognition."

Typically, humans do most of their breathing through one nostril at a time, with the task alternating between the nostrils. The researchers found that when the left nostril was working harder, the right side of the brain functioned better and vice versa.

Fit To Be Tried

There are thousands of exercises and you've only got one body, but that doesn't mean you can't try them all: Running backwards sounds, well, ill-advised. But some published research shows running backwards creates less impact on the knees and uses 30% more energy. Maybe some of that is from constantly craning your neck around to see where you're going.

Medical Myths

Shaving does not affect the thickness or rate of hair growth, but because shave hair doesn't have the fine taper of unshaved hair, it can seem courser.

Med School

Q: How do you lose most of your fat?

A: If you said vigorous exercise, that's only partially correct. Most fat exits your body in the form of converted carbon dioxide. You breathe it out. The rest — about 16% — is converted to water and disposed of through urine, feces, sweat and tears.

Epitaphs

"There is but no life without death." — American gangster Frank Nitti (1886-1943). One of Al Capone's top henchmen, Nitti succeeded Capone as a Chicago crime boss after the latter's incarceration. He committed suicide.

To find out more about Scott LaFee and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www.creators.com.

Photo credit: Pexels at Pixabay