Fwd: Pocket’s Greatest Hits 2024: Science

I am posting early in anticipation of being even busier later.   If you want, look into using the Firefox browser and its Pocket article offering and saving service.    Bill

------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Pocket <team@today.getpocket.com>
Date: Tue, Dec 24, 2024 at 9:14 AM
Subject: Pocket's Greatest Hits 2024: Science
To: <olderkirby@gmail.com>

13 Inventors Killed By Their Own Inventions. The New Science of Death.

December 24, 2024 Pocket's Greatest Hits: Science The Newsletter's Best Science Stories of 2024, Including Aliens, Arctic Warming, and What Your Appendix Does 1   13 Inventors Killed By Their Own Inventions From the inventor who disappeared along with the lighthouse he designed to the daredevil whose contraptions cut his life short, these are the sad stories of inventors killed by their own inventions. Mental Floss Kat Long Save 2   The New Science of Death: 'There's Something Happening in the Brain That Makes No Sense' New research into the dying brain suggests the line between life and death may be less distinct than previously thought. The Guardian Alex Blasdel Save 3   Your Appendix Is Not, in Fact, Useless. This Anatomy Professor Explains A sudden appendectomy as a child made Heather Smith curious about what the appendix is for and why it gets inflamed. Now as an anatomy researcher, she's finding answers. NPR Selena Simmons-Duffin Save 4   Everyone Is Wrong About "Love Languages." Here's Why. Big Think spoke to the author of "The 5 Love Languages" about the popular relationship theory — and its lack of scientific support. Big Think Ross Pomeroy Save 5   Why Daylight Saving Time Messes With Your Brain To "spring forward" is more damaging to our health than to "fall back," according to some surprising science. Atlas Obscura Beth Ann Malow Save 6   No, Aliens Haven't Visited the Earth Why are so many smart people insisting otherwise? New York Magazine Nicholson Baker Save 7   The Cement That Could Turn Your House Into a Giant Battery Concrete is perhaps the most commonly used building material in the world. With a bit of tweaking, it could help to power our homes too. BBC Tom Ough Save 8   Scientists Strapped Cameras to a Bunch of Polar Bears. The Footage Is Breathtaking — and Alarming. As the Arctic warms, these iconic bears are spending more time on land. New videos reveal why that's a problem. Vox Benji Jones Save 9   The Science of Having a Great Conversation Forming meaningful bonds with others can improve your health, make you mentally sharper, and fuel creativity. WIRED David Robson Save 10   Why Do Dogs Wag Their Tails? Scientists Examine the Endearing Behavior Dogs communicate through tail-wagging, and humans may have selected for the trait during domestication. Smithsonian Magazine Sarah Kuta Save Thanks for reading! If you enjoyed this newsletter, please share it with a friend. Was this email forwarded to you? Subscribe now to get Pocket in your inbox every day. Take Pocket everywhere You're receiving this email because you subscribed to Pocket. Unsubscribe • Manage Preferences • Privacy Policy • Help Center • Advertise © 2024 Mozilla Corporation, 149 New Montgomery St, 4th Floor, San Francisco, CA 94105

Hard-working women

Maybe this is true in your house, too.  There is a woman in the kitchen, pulling out pans, mixing this and that, making all sorts of foods, mostly sweets and impressive cakes and confections.  Used bowls and mixers, kitchen implements get piled in the sink or arranged in the dishwasher.  Various types of vessels get filled with cookies and candies.  You know what is happening and why. 

Superlative fatigue

Much of our society depends on communication and much of our communication is ads.  Just use your favorite browser and see how long it takes before some words pop up about great this or wonderful that.  

In high school and college, I enjoyed the writings of Jacques Barzun, a native of France who later became a dean at Columbia University.  In his book "Science, the Glorious Entertainment", he expressed fear that with all the research that goes on, the number of important discoveries would eventually exceed the number of words we have to name them.  Just think of the additional burdens advertisers have in trying to convince us that although other products do stop bleeding, THIS product is far superior, far safer, far whatever quality you are looking for.  Buy it, dammit!

We are hooked on the use of superlatives (best, highest, most this or that).  Trying to think of communicating our desire to have you purchase the product we make without using superlative words is difficult in today's world.  One angle is to take an unusual variable:

"Buy our product because it is so pretty that as it sits in your bathroom, visitors will be impressed by its beautiful color."  Another is humility:"Buy our product, please.  It is merely one of all the others, competing for your coin.  It is an adequate product, not more expensive than the others but equally good.  So how about it?  Buy ours, please." See?  Superlative free!

Mild dis

About 71% of my life, year numbers began with "19".  Now, they begin with "20".  Just about every day, that seems wrong. I'm willing to go along with it but I am registering mild discomfort.

Tomorrow is winter

Tomorrow at 3:20 CST AM is the official beginning of winter.  It will be winter until March 20, 2025.  So, what has it been until now, with snow and wind and cold?  It's still fall today, since September 22.  Of course, the seasons don't always behave as we expect.

Vernal Equinox 2025

20 march

10:01:09 AM

Summer Solstice 2025

21 june

04:42:02 AM

Autumnal Equinox 2025

22 september

08:19:18 PM

Winter Solstice 2025

21 december

04:03:01 PM

What is new?

I often read CNN's Five Things AM, Google News, NPR.  There is often plenty of repetition between them and I probably don't even need 1440.  I am interested in what's happening but there is a limit.  I can see that what the news reporters and media decide to mention is a matter of judgment.  My interests tend to be somewhat limited and peculiar.  I admire Alexandra Banner who is credited with the text in CNN.  She tends to get across what happened without too much slant or judgment.

Recent books

I try to avoid buying Kindle books since I have so many already, many that I have paid for and own but haven't downloaded.  But sometimes, new ones appear that seem worth buying to get them into my account.  I wrote on Monday about taping the front of four Kindle readers to make it more convenient, easier and faster to know what is loaded into first position in that reader.  The four books were 

Mindfulness on the Go by Jan Chozen Bays, MD

The Man's Guide to Women by John and Julie Gottman

Last Boat Out of Shanghai by Helen Zia

Longevity for the Lazy by Richard Malish, MD

I was reading The Last Boat Out of Shanghai aloud but decided I wanted to drop it.  It was a selection of Lynn's book club.  We moved on to How to Train a Wild Elephant by Jan Bays instead.

"Meet Me Next Christmas", the universe and us

We watched some of "Meet Me Next Christmas".  The heroine sits next to an interesting man and eventually they offer to meet next Christmas if by then, they are each interested.  By next Christmas, she is and tries to follow up.  They purposely avoided exchanging contact information, letting "the universe" and fate either let them get together or not.  We didn't watch to the end but, of course, expecting the universe to guide a life is asking quite a lot.

My first English course in college included the woman I have been married to for more than 6 decades.  The first event that put her on my radar was the professor calling the roll and saying about calling her name, "That's Finnish, isn't it?"  She agreed that her name was Finnish.  I was interested in ancestry and still am.  

Later, after dating and marrying, I had learned of the Finnish epic poem, The Kalevala, and checked our college library.   They had a translation into English, Of course, I noticed the translator was William F. Kirby.  Not exactly my name but close enough!  The universe was a little late, but helpful anyway. 

Later still, we both submitted our saliva to two separate genetic companies who explain where a person's ancestors came from.  Hers included Finnish, Cuban and Spanish.  How in the world do Finns, Cubans and Spanish get together?  Mining.  There were mines in Michigan and mines in Cuba.  A Swedish-Finn man was a roving troubleshooter in Michigan when trouble in a Cuban mine needed him.  While there, he met an attractive young woman.  Thanks, universe!

Taping Kindle readers

I have four Kindle readers. Sometimes, they are just called "Kindles".  There are several models, ranging in price from $110 to $400.

t.ly/gLiza

I favor the simpler cheaper models.  

They keep a charge pretty well.  I prefer the readers since they are not built to interrupt reading with ads or flashy pictures.  I do have thousands of Kindle books.  In paper,they would weigh a lot, In eform, they weigh a total of a few ounces.

I am developing the habit of working with one book in one Kindle.  I like books that say what they have to say, directly and quickly.  

I have put a piece of masking tape on the cover of each with the title of that book written on the tape.  I have to re-tape more often than I expected, even when using just a single word to indicate what book is being read in that Kindle.  

A little bit sorry

"Higher" education has a long history.  You have thinkers in every culture and every age.  You actually have thinkers of both sexes!  Some pressures for higher education came from the Roman Catholic church.  To understand more and more and to answer pesky questions that arose over time, it was necessary to learn Hebrew, Greek and Latin.  Learning those languages led to admiring and copying some of the practices more ancient writers practiced.  But you quickly find that going down to Barney's Bar, you may hear uses of language that don't conform to recommendations made by grammarians.  

My friend wants me to change "It's her" to "It's she" but that's not the way my people talk.  Sorry !

It is her!

Lynn was reading a book about spiritual experiences when she came upon an account that sounded very much like what she herself once experienced.  "Who wrote this?", she wondered.  She looked up the author and it turned out to be "Lynn Kirby"! 

She contributed her account to a feature in a Quaker publication and her contribution was chosen among others to be published in a separate collection. The book is the first one listed on the linked page.

t.ly/AeWWe (about p. 117)

Tajja Isen

I use Firefox as my regular browser and Duckduckgo for searches.  The first browser I tried, ever, was Netscape and one of the main developers of that is also a main developer of Firefox.  There are all sorts of services that Firefox offers for free.  One of them is Pocket.  It is a saving service that allows me to save anything I find on the internet with Firefox.  But it also sends once or twice a week links to ten articles that might be of interest.  To me, just reading the headlines of each suggestion is valuable and helps keep me nicely and broadly up-to-date.  

Today, that list of suggestions, "Hits", led me to a Canadian voice actress and author named Tajja Isen.  The Hits list included an article by her called "Read these 6 books - Trust us".  That's too many books for me since I have too many already that I am trying to get read.  But Isen started her article saying that despite the existence of an old proverb, "Never judge a book by its cover", much of the time the cover is indeed the trigger for one's decision to read or not.  Her comment made me laugh and I relayed it to Lynn.

Eating the same thing or getting a variety of foods

As a high school wrestler, I watched my weight.  If a match day came and I was too heavy, the team would suffer a forfeit. I was careful and that never happened in high school or college.  Some of the guys said they avoided certain foods that would increase their weight but what food would and would not was of interest.  As a college freshman, I wrote a research paper about food and nutrition.  I read that the Japanese government at one time advised eating 30 different foods a day, trying to head its citizens toward a wide variety of foods but has since avoided a specific number.  I also read about food in the "blue zones", where people live extra long. Those people seem to repeat satisfactory foods and do well with them.  So, I am torn: variety or not?

The two of us take turns cooking dinner.  Lynn likes variety for its own sake and she pursues it.  So, our dinners are going to have some variety.  As we age, it still seems important to have a healthy diet.  I saw a recent article questioning the blue zone's idea, complaining that records might be inaccurately kept.

Plays as communication

My friend took members of her family to New York for a couple of days.  She asked if I had suggestions and I said to see a play if she could.  They can be too expensive, too sold out, not fit into other plans.  

I haven't heard if she did but the subject of the power of plays and other fiction is interesting.  We usually say that Gutenburg invented moveable type and changed communication quite deeply.  But public communication didn't wait for newspapers.  Ancient Greeks had plays with a message.

"Theater in ancient greece played a pivotal role in addressing social issues, bringing to light the complexities of society, and sparking discussions among the audience." - says Historyrise.com

Inventions and me

My Storyworth question was about inventions: what influenced my life the most?  So many came to mind( cars, electricity, language, typing, internet, tv, stove, etc., etc., etc.).  While thinking about this subject for today's post, I wondered if I am an invention.  I suppose I can be considered to be one.  As I understand it, my parents took action that resulted in me existing.  Had they not taken that action, I wouldn't. 

Yes, I have been influenced by me very much.  

Every now and then, I come across an article about sleeping and waking.  Usually, it is aimed at getting enough sleep of helpful, healthy quality.  Some of the articles have mentioned the difference between having electric lighting available and not having it.  I gather that adult humans cannot normally sleep for 12 hours.  Before the availability of electric lights, darkness took too many hours for sleeping so people slept in two periods.  Between the first and second sleeps, they worked on correspondence, and other tasks they could.