I'm also feeling quite worried about it. Per your first link, I didn't realize that the compostable alternatives I try to seek out could be just as bad or worse. The article corroborates unfortunately:
>Most of the chemicals leaching from food packaging come from plastics, but not all of them. “Probably the worst one is recycled paper and cardboard,” Muncke said. “And I know that’s a hard one to stomach.” Recycling paper, cardboard or plastic for food packaging leads to nonfood grade inks mixed in next to food, she explained, adding to the chemical risks.
>“I think the saddest people always try their hardest to make people happy because they know what it’s like to feel absolutely worthless and they don’t want anyone else to feel like that.”
I consider myself funny and am always joking around. However, I never felt such strong association with comedians until after both of my parents passed in difficult fashions. I felt such a strong need to be funny, like it was my only good personality trait. I eventually took a standup class. I enjoyed getting on stage and working up to my 5 min set. I still write jokes and go to open mics every now and then.
The two takeaways I have are:
* the practice of writing everyday was key. Having to articulate what was actually upsetting me—instead of just saying "I hate this or that"—to find what was funny or absurd about it really helped me release a lot of the pent up anger.
* like the quote, making other people laugh was/is so rewarding both for my own self-esteem and for knowing that I brought a little joy to others
I have been making an effort to only buy athletic wear with 100% recycled polyester. I guess now I throw them all out and only buy wasteful virgin polyester athletic wear?
Or you could check out alpaca or merino wool. It's better at trapping heat when it gets wet and if you let it hang dry it doesn't smell bad like plastics do so you can wear it more than once.
This 100% - plastic clothing is sadly just a bad idea. Also, smells gross very quickly. Wool, silk, cotton and other natural fibers are great and not hideously more expensive in most cases.
It's funny, I also consider it a red flag if they're still using Sketch. However, personally, I still want Sketch to succeed and return to being a viable option
As the article mentions, between these reindeer sleeping while they eat and penguins sleeping for 4 seconds at a time, it's pretty amazing what we're learning about how animals sleep. I wonder if humans can ever learn to use these "other" means of sleep
There's the "uber sleep" method or whatever it's called. Made the rounds in my circle of friends in like...2007ish?
Basically you force yourself to only take 4 15 minute naps a day. A utterly hellish thing to do, but eventually your brain figures out that you've decided to terrorize it and will instantly dip into REM the moment you fall asleep, and you'll wake up feeling rested and only need to sleep an hour a day.
I personally tried this for a bit and it kinda sorta works, but it's awful to get started, and the first time you sleep more than 15 minutes you're going to break the trend and revert, and who knows what long term effects it has on people.
Sleep in general is one of those really interesting areas of biology that we still don't get.
That schedule I'd read about was the Überman schedule, where you sleep 20-30 minutes six times a day. Definitely a much more extreme form than most polyphasic sleep schedules. :)
I read a series of blog posts about it, probably around the same time as you did, and found them again [1] last night. I didn't actually read through it again, but if anyone's interested in reading more about someone's firsthand experience with it, could be a good classic read.
If I am on vacation or in some other relaxed environment, I will go into a state where I sleep 6 hours at night but also take a siesta or 15-minute to 30-minute nap in the middle of the day.
Can't find the study right now but these alternative sleep schedules absolutely destroy your growth hormone release, and probably a few other mechanisms
I can't remember where, but I was listening to a guy talk about his sleep disorder and one of the main symptoms he described was being able to instantly fall into REM.
Another drastic example of animal sleep being very different from ours is dolphins. Dolphins sleep "one hemisphere at a time".
> Research has shown that dolphins are able to sleep with only half of their brain at a time, a phenomenon known as unihemispheric slow-wave sleep (USWS). During USWS, one hemisphere of the brain remains active while the other hemisphere rests. This allows dolphins to continue swimming, surfacing for air, and avoiding predators while still getting the rest they need.
Ducks apparently do half-brain sleeping too. If I recall correctly it has something to do with sitting side by side, and that they can let the half on their brain not attached to the "look-out" eye rest.
Sleeping in more than one long chunk of time is called polyphasic sleeping [0]. It's postulated that sleeping in one go is an industrial age phenomenon.
Anecdotal, but I embraced a mild form of this during college, using "Einstein naps" (brief naps ended just after dozing) for a recharge between my work day and night classes. I experienced nitably improved focus and less evening burnout.
It's crazy how you go two, three months and then when you get four hours in a row you wake up feeling amazing, newly clear-headed, and knowing you got objectively bad sleep you wonder how messed up you were before.
Maybe it’s also a caffeine thing. When I’m off of caffeine I can take multiple daytime naps. They feel great and are very refreshing. When I’m drinking caffeine it’s hard enough just to get to sleep at the end of the day.
As a recent parent of a 3 month old the stupidity of our evolutionary design baffles me. Why do you have to laboriously teach babies to fall asleep, stay asleep, etc. Even in contact naps where they should theoretically feel absolutely safe and biologically cared for. The sheer amount of absolutely ridiculous life draining energy that goes into getting a baby to do basic primitive biological things is crazy.
> Why do you have to laboriously teach babies [basic survival things]
Because we are born prematurely. Our brain wouldn’t fit through the birth canal if we were born later with more basic skills baked in. So instead we finish a big part of our early development outside the womb.
Just put it out in the barn, it'll sleep. Or float it down the river if you think it's caused by demons. People didn't even name their kids for a year even 100 years ago.
Point is that modern child rearing isn't even similar to what we had 3-4 generations ago. The "weak" were weeded out. If you had to choose between the family surviving and dealing with a finicky newborn... compromises were made.
>Most of the chemicals leaching from food packaging come from plastics, but not all of them. “Probably the worst one is recycled paper and cardboard,” Muncke said. “And I know that’s a hard one to stomach.” Recycling paper, cardboard or plastic for food packaging leads to nonfood grade inks mixed in next to food, she explained, adding to the chemical risks.