ROBERT SAPOLSKY ON WHY RUSSIANS ARE STUCK IN A SUBMISSIVE / AGGRESSIVE LOOP

POLITICS / PSYCHOLOGY / SOCIETY / ESSAYS / LINKS / 2022-10-12

An interesting take on why Russians have been stuck in a submissive / aggressive loop for centuries by Robert Sapolsky, who privileges the nurture (culture) component rather than the nature (DNA) factor. I’d disagree somewhat: the negative selection pressure has expunged the country of its  + 

WHY EVERYONE AND YOUR GRANDMOTHER NEEDS AN AR-15?

POLITICS / SOCIETY / ESSAYS / 2022-10-07

A well-researched, superbly edited, humorous video explaining why every American, especially a senior, needs an AR-15 gun. In all seriousness. Or how to build the perfect straw man with a bit of a circular thing goin’. His logic: US civilians need the same firearms as  + 

“CHEAP SEX” BOOK REVIEW – IT’S GONNA COST US MORE THAN WE THINK

BIOLOGY / ECONOMICS / HEALTH / SOCIETY / REVIEWS / 2022-09-19

“Cheap Sex” is a great book by sociologist Mark Regnerus to compliment David Buss’ “Evolution of Desire”. It describes the current personal and interpersonal sexuality / gender relations state of affairs in the US. The local trends and stats which do or will impact the  + 

A GOOD DAY TO DIE WHEN SCIENCE PUBLISHES A LIST OF TIPPING POINTS

ENVIRONMENT / LINKS / 2022-09-08

A good day to die. The world is heading toward ~3°C of global warming, triggering multiple irreversible climate tipping points, including, but not limited to: Gulf Stream weakening; permafrost abrupt thaw; Amazon rainforest dieback; northern forests dieback; ice sheet collapse (Greenland, Antarctic); Want to continue  + 

“HOW EMOTIONS ARE MADE” BOOK REVIEW (PSST… WE DON’T KNOW)

BIOLOGY / HEALTH / LINGUISTICS / REVIEWS / 2022-09-05

“How Emotions Are Made“ is yet another weird book with a promising title, written for someone without any knowledge of science, its methods and branches. Possibly for those of us who skipped biology classes in school and haven’t read anything about neuroscience ever since? The  + 

THE FLUID OF STARS AT THE BOUNDARIES OF STATES

PHYSICS / ESSAYS / 2022-08-27

We model the galaxies as a sort of fluid of stars, where the interactions are not electromagnetic, but gravitational. So, galaxies are fluids of stars, which themselves are made of plasmas of hydrogen made of frozen nuggets of quark matter. Yet again, there are no  + 

EURO COMPANY CULTURE: SAME DATE DELIVERY… NO, VACATIONS

LOGISTICS / MANAGEMENT / SOCIETY / ESSAYS / 2022-08-14

What is an Express Delivery by a  European company, within the EU (no customs)? Ordered: Thursday 14:00, courier picked up on Friday, delivered next week on Wednesday 18:00. 🙄 Similar service name by an American company, also in the EU: picked up same day 20:00,  + 

I CAN’T THINK OF A TITLE FOR THIS STORY OF WARPED MOTHERHOOD

ECONOMICS / POLITICS / SOCIETY / ESSAYS / 2022-08-09

In the US state of Nebraska, a 17-year-old girl got pregnant, decided to abort but couldn’t because of local laws, received help from her mother to buy and administer mifepristone and misoprostol, miscarried, buried the fetus… and discussed the details on Facebook Messenger… The private  + 

THE FEAR OF THE WORLD GOVERNMENT

ECONOMICS / LOGISTICS / POLITICS / TRAVEL / ESSAYS / 2022-07-25

The observable universe is a sphere of 93 billion light years in diameter. Our Universe contains 200 billion trillion stars (with their planets). And yet, people are against a “World Government” for a puny rock that you can fly around under 45 hours in a  + 

JORDAN PETERSON’S OPINION ABOUT THE RU-UA CONFLICT IS HYSTERICAL & WRONG

ECONOMICS / POLITICS / SOCIETY / ESSAYS / 2022-07-18

Impressive to watch such a hysterical Descent of Man. Despite decades of his “studies” of Russian literature and totalitarianism, Jordan Peterson completely misunderstands what’s going on in Russia, NATO, rouble (un)currency, global economy, and uses a real war killing real people to talk about a  + 

BIZARRE GOOGLE REVIEWS OF EUROPEAN LOGISTICS CENTERS

LOGISTICS / SOCIETY / TRANSPORTATION / ESSAYS / 2022-07-15

Bizarre Google Reviews of European logistics centers, such as Dachser, Geodis, Kuehne+Nagel… 4-5 stars from truckers — hauling the semi-trailer 1-2 stars from end-customers — businesses and consumers unable to schedule a pick-up or delivery 🤷🏻‍♂️ Truck drivers commenting the tidy toilets and lacking space  + 

“FOR ALL MANKIND” SEASON 1

CINEMA / REVIEWS / 2022-07-12

Finally got to watch “For All Mankind” season 1… well, Ronald Moore sure is consistent with his regular soap opera vibe. Or rather, alcohol+tobacco opera — the amount of drinking and smoking easily surpasses the amount of RP-1 burning and space flying. It ticks all  + 

THE END OF THE WORLD IS JUST THE BEGINNING

ECONOMICS / FINANCE / LOGISTICS / REVIEWS / 2022-07-11

“The End of the World is Just the Beginning” is a weird book by Peter Zeihan — self-described as an “optimist, green, internationalist, and democrat” — who retells us a mix-mash of history, geography, economy and chemistry lessons taught in school, then declares that the  + 

HOW TO CHOOSE YOUR RUNNING SHOES OR SANDALS?

RUNNING / ESSAYS / 2022-06-19

How to choose your running shoes or sandals after you’ve done your homework and narrowed the choice to 3-4 pairs? run in each pair — which one gives you the childish sensation of flight? reduce to 2 pairs — put a different shoe on each  + 

CAR-CENTRIC CITIES OF AMERICA CREATE NATIONS OF STAY-AT-HOME-GAMERS

EDUCATION / SOCIETY / ESSAYS / LINKS / 2022-06-10

Car-centric urban planning in North America creates nations of stay-at-home-gamers “under adequate supervision” that fail to acquire social interaction skills till the age of 16 (when they can get a driver’s license)… So their 20′s and 30′s are spent being a teenager, “discovering the world  + 

“ORDER OF TIME” BY CARLO ROVELLI

PHYSICS / REVIEWS / 2022-06-06

Disappointed by Carlo Rovelli’s “Order of Time”. Reads more like a physicist’s hobby project in creative writing (though quite a poetic one)… rather than a container of eye-opening, bleeding-edge information. Main ideas: time is quantized, entropy increases with time, time is local and relative, we  + 

THE OPAQUE AND CONVOLUTED ARCHITECTURAL DESCRIPTION

ARCHITECTURE / LINGUISTICS / ESSAYS / 2022-05-29

I wonder how much time architects spend writing instead of designing? The typical text that describes a random contemporary house is something else… “Architecture, specifically the house, is an act of enabling shelter, a vessel through which in turn enables habitation and the ongoing experience  + 

CIGARETTE SMOKERS HAVE LOWER IQ THAN NON-SMOKERS

HEALTH / SOCIETY / ESSAYS / 2022-03-29

I’ve been wondering about indirect IQ measurements. One of them, is… smoking. Yes, people still smoke tobacco in 2022. A lot of people. 🤢 Cigarette smokers have lower IQs than non-smokers, and the more a person smokes, the lower their IQ. For example, this study  + 

SPECIAL OPERATIONS

CINEMA / POLITICS / SOCIETY / ESSAYS / 2022-03-01

You know what’s “special” about “an operation”? It’s when it CREATES something new. A piece of art: a film, a book, a soundtrack. A scientific discovery. A technological breakthrough. A medical procedure that allows us to walk hours after appendectomy. A business that transforms us  + 

HOW TO SPOT SOMEONE SERIOUS ABOUT YOGA?

HEALTH / PSYCHOLOGY / SOCIETY / SPIRIT / ESSAYS / 2022-02-10

They: don’t go to a “studio” — they practice at home / office / traveling… daily, wearing whatever or semi-naked (no “yoga” apparel) sit in siddhasana / padmasana casually “because it’s comfy” while talking / eating / typing — optimize for meditation, not circus acrobatics  + 

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