I just finished addressing my Valentimes cards for the year. Here in the PNW, the entire winter decided to dispense in one size-large serving, it’s been extra cold and snowy around these parts (my pipes even froze last week!). A spot of cheesy Valentines goodness warms my heart. I hope it will warm the hearts of my friends and family, too.
In fact, it turned out that the physical impacts on endurance and fullness were often more substantial among the volunteers who believed they had the gene variant and did not than among those who actually harbored it.
These findings suggest that “people tend to attribute more power to genes than they probably should,” says Bradley Turnwald, a doctoral student at Stanford who conducted the study with the senior author, Alia Crum, and others.
Our mind-sets, or mental expectations about ourselves, seem to play an equal or even greater role than does our DNA in shaping some of our bodies’ reactions to diet and exercise, Mr. Turnwald says.
» Journalism Isn’t Dying. It’s Returning to Its Roots. I think we’d all be better off to openly declare our biases. The media culture of the Founding Fathers is fascinating, simply because it was so openly partisan.
Style and fashion have collapsed into each other. But being stylish and being fashionable used to mean two different things. One did not require having money to buy designer clothes; the other did. One required a certain sensibility; the other one did not. That’s why you could be called a “fashion victim,” but no one would call you a style victim.
The signs that we are in a postmodernist era of fashion — where fashion has become unmoored and lost its original meaning — are everywhere: the rise of streetwear, a tsunami of product collaborations, normcore, dad sneakers, the ugly-made-pretty aesthetic, the erasure of concern for the quality of both materials and construction.
Some weeks, are easy. Other weeks are hard. This week, everything is fake fake fake. The world feels like a hall of mirrors, a raft of lies, a neverending stack of turtles. One of the best ways that I’ve seen this feeling described is in John C Wright’s City Beyond Time: Tales from the Fall of Metachronopolis, where arrogant time travellers fold so many alternate timelines over each other—like the folding and stretching of saltwater taffy—that eventually you can’t tell what’s real and what isn’t. Mr Wright has a delightful way with words, distilling grand concepts into striking, fairylike scenes that stick in your mind like cobwebs. I highly recommend his work.
Keep strengthening your beauty appreciation apparatus and it will drastically change your relationship with your sensory field, with your mind, and with your consciousness. Rather than having your interest and attention immersed in the churning babble of the labeling, dividing mind, your interest and attention begins moving to the sheer gorgeousness of everything that appears in your field of awareness; sensory input, thoughts, feelings, and the experience of being alive itself.
» I’m personally more interested in health than in weight loss, but I was just introduced to Seth Roberts and the Shangri-La diet. It’s fascinating to see how our bodies and our brains are connected.
» Howard Schultz, former Starbucks CEO, announces that he’s interested in running for president as an Independent instead of Democrat. CNN responds by publishing 5 hitpieces on him. Fascinating.
» The Death of a Dreamer. A tale of bullycide via fake news, or a warning that public figures need a thick skin?
» When Taemin performs “Move” with other backup dancers, you can’t help but watch him. When Taemin performs “Move” with his choreographer/teacher, you can’t help but watch her.
I’ve been searching for a church. As someone who is really good at seeking and researching, the search is easy for me. It’s the finding and committing that’s a problem. I’m trying to balance the need for theological soundness with the knowledge that churches are made of people, who are flawed and sinful. Too entrenched. Too young. Unbiblical sermons. So many reasons.
One of the biggest dealbreakers that I didn’t anticipate is my utter antipathy to the Baby Boomer influence. If there’s one thing that will provoke an immediate heel-turn, it’s a Boomer in the pulpit booming his boomer platitudes. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the two I feel most drawn to are the Orthodox church and a church planting operation run by Millennials for Millennials.
Neither church is perfect, but I’m hoping to embed myself in one that helps me work on my own faults in the context of a Truth-centered community.
» In other “conspiracies are actually real” news, Brandon Truaxe got thrown off a building in Toronto this week. I’m not surprised, since he got “let go” from his own company last year and was ranting about very familiar topics on social media last year. I’m curious about who he got caught up with, and how much his “cheap good skincare for all” philosophy threatened people who make a lot of money. Context: Truaxe founded Deciem, the parent company of The Ordinary.
The details are what distinguish the real thing from cheap imitation. In an age of manufacturing en masse and copycat e-commerce, the feeling of true connection is one thing that can’t be knocked off. It comes from within your brand, from celebrating what makes you who you are. Retail’s not dead. You just have to remember to feel for your own pulse when you try to reimagine its future.
When I spoke with Weller, I made the mistake of characterizing this notion as counterintuitive. “It’s entirely intuitive,” he responded. “Homo sapiens have been around for 200,000 years. Until the industrial revolution, we lived outside. How did we get through the Neolithic Era without sunscreen? Actually, perfectly well. What’s counterintuitive is that dermatologists run around saying, ‘Don’t go outside, you might die.’”
Last week, I quit coffee again. Not banishing it from my life, just recognizing that I should not be dependent on it. After the headache subsided, life continued as usual. It always strikes me how much things don’t change in your life, even after you make a change. Inertia, even applied to things like quitting coffee or going to the gym.
Anyway, I gave myself a reprieve this weekend because I was meeting a friend. Coffee for me and tea for her. That was this morning. Now, in the evening, I’m not in a great frame of mind. Darkness has settled over my brain. Neurons are not happy. The world is ending. I don’t know what it’s like for you, but for me—coffee depression is real.
If that’s not a warning sign, I don’t know what is.
» I had already quit drinking coffee regularly before I read this article, but it’s fascinating—and alarming—how much we neglect our sleep.
“People are stunned when I tell them the quarter-life of caffeine,” he says. “It’s 12 hours. So if you drink a coffee at noon, at midnight a quarter of that caffeine is still in your brain.”
“And what’s the zero life?” I wonder. “When does it leave your system?”
“Somewhere between 24 and 36 hours.”
» Oh, and don’t forget: our sedentary lifestyle is killing us. (If you can get past the tone of the article, it’s an overview of how exercise is an add-in to lives of leisure.)
» “The Weight I Carry” is an essay about being fat, and wishing to not be fat. This is why Rule #1 is Don’t Get Fat.
» Hmm, I sense a theme here…. Let’s switch things up a bit.
» Maker or Manager? Your schedule impacts the type of work that you do.
Each type of schedule works fine by itself. Problems arise when they meet. Since most powerful people operate on the manager’s schedule, they’re in a position to make everyone resonate at their frequency if they want to. But the smarter ones restrain themselves, if they know that some of the people working for them need long chunks of time to work in.
» I’ve been reading about fasting and this book chapter is interesting: How and When to Be Your Own Doctor: Fasting. The author’s views are pretty extreme but I’m caught by the idea that fasting forces the body to burn through fat stores and deal with the trapped toxins within, instead of carrying them around forever.
New year…same ol’ me. Have you ever felt that making a big change to your lifestyle—like moving or getting a dramatic new hairstyle—will also change you on the inside? I’ve been guilty of that for many years. Surely THIS TIME I’ll get my new apartment decorated and keep it in impeccable shape. It never comes to pass. I keep repeating patterns of thought and behavior, so of course the past repeats itself! I hadn’t yet done the work to change.
I have high hopes for 2019, but so far I’ve been lying low. I’m avoiding the work—the early stages are always so painful. But like sore muscles after the gym, you (and I) have to work through the discomfort to get somewhere worth going. I have muscles now, after going through the gym. What will I have after going to art gym for 6 months? Let’s find out.
» Michigan State is a bellwether for things to come in academia. Universities are full of people who like to avoid responsibility and making difficult decisions. Structurally, the fiefdom model (only each discipline has the authority to oversee itself) provides lots of room for shady things to develop. Combined with the cult-like devotion that most universities foster, any misdeeds open a powder keg of bad emotions.
For colleges and universities, tragedies of this scale more commonly take the form of fatal accidents or mass shootings. In such cases, campus communities tend to pull together rather than split apart. The failure of a leader as a moral actor, however, elicits a different kind of grieving. This is an angry grief, a confusing sorrow that tempers enthusiasm for the institution with a kind of quiet shame. It is a phenomenon that finds its singular historic parallel at Pennsylvania State University, where top administrators were criminally charged with covering up the crimes of a serial sexual predator.
As at Penn State, where Graham B. Spanier served for 16 years as president before he was fired and later convicted of endangering the welfare of children, Michigan State struggles to come to grips with what the Simon era means now. Her prosecution brings that struggle to the fore in ways that her long-serving colleagues had not fully anticipated, opening a dam of emotion and ambivalence.
» That isn’t to say that I don’t love women. Many women are doing cool and interesting things, like Riva-Melissa Tez. I like her ideas about funding research, and that she’s actually doing something about it.
We really need to improve incentive structures between groups. How can we give other people access to fundamental research? When you read academic papers, researchers are incentivized to keep private the exact details that would explain the breakthrough. I’m opposed to people being private about discovery, even though I understand it would be suicide to do the opposite. I love today’s emphasis on being open source, but we need more incentives for following through. Right now, you need to be altruistic or charitable to be open source. There is no cost benefit. We don’t live in a world where individuals get rewarded for contributing to society. Instead, the message is, contribute to your own thing and you’ll be rewarded for it. Then use that money to contribute to society. That process is too slow in my mind.
» If you’ve ever wondered why the world is a hall of mirrors, this article will help explain why. (Please note that I do not endorse all of the theology. The bit on mimetics is great, tho.)
Happy new year, y’all! I didn’t think 2018 was all that bad, but I’m looking forward to doing productive things and thinking grateful thoughts in 2019. This time of year, more than ever, has me thinking about future plans and how to coax the tiniest wisps of potential into crackling flames. Creativity is not a zero-sum game—so let’s create together, shall we?
» It’s always funny to me that Korean pop songs are often written by Americans and Europeans—the final product sounds so different than Western pop music. This article has little insights into why.
With Korea, we like to do things that push the boundaries, not super generic, because they’re very musical. Things like that translate a lot better than they do in America.
I think the answer is that a distinction basic to my argument — the difference between good interdisciplinary work and bad — isn’t as widely recognized in literary studies as it should be. It is as if some members of the profession believe that, once one steps outside of one’s discipline, one also abandons the standards by which one’s work might be judged.
18. Anyone who participates in the ongoing smear campaign against Assange and Wikileaks is basically just saying “Extremely powerful people should be able to lie to us without any difficulty or opposition at all.”
I’ll double-check this determination by asking myself, “Is this outfit refined (Classic)? Is this outfit comfortable (Natural)? Is this outfit sexy (Romantic)?”
Yes, yes, yes.
I may take an extra moment to rule out the other four essences by asking myself, “Is this outfit otherworldly (Ethereal)? Is it innocent (Ingenue)? Is it avant-garde (Dramatic)? Is it playful (Gamine)?”
I’ve been sick(ish) this weekend, and watching more YouTube than usual, so there’s some fatty videos at the end of this post. It’s one of those times when I can’t tell if this is a real upper respiratory infection, if my body is processing out yet another round of SIBO toxins, or if it’s something else—perhaps the physical manifestation of a mental transformation? Weird, I know. I still wonder. I’ve watched my mind and body chase each other around enough times that it’s not outside the realm of possibility.
Anyway, there’s lots of interesting stuff on the internet this week.
» The “Why I left Buzzfeed” of the beauty industry. Fashion and beauty editors are discovering the power of the personal brand, and are “defecting” to join the ranks of bloggers that they once railed so hard against.
Some editors say they ask their managers before agreeing to appear in a campaign or post sponsored content. Others say they often agree to work with brands and ask for forgiveness afterwards, especially if the brand is from outside their beat.
Steinherr did not ask for permission from Condé Nast to sign with the agency Storm Models in 2016, but she informed them afterwards and says the company was always supportive of her partnerships with third parties, which she identifies with “#ad.” “I have my own code of conduct,” she says. “I don’t find it difficult because I’m used to it — to say this is editorial, this is advertising — to me, there are no blurred lines.”
» From the other end, ROOKIE is shutting down. Tavi was a blogger who became the editorial establishment, so we’re kind of coming full circle.
» We all knew it was coming: CRISPR babies. Pray for these children.
» True confessions of a trans person. I appreciate the honesty, even though I can’t begin to wrap my head around how this is a good thing. Then again, I have spent my life getting my body to heal, so it’s unthinkable to deliberately inflict a wound upon myself.
The merger of fine and casual dining seems to show no signs of abating. As a result, even moderately quiet restaurants have become few and far between. Things have gotten so bad, there’s even an app for helping potential diners find quieter places to eat. The culinary establishment once aimed to dismantle the stuffiness and high cost of dining out by blurring the line between casual and fine dining, eliminating classist dress codes, and make dining a more collective experience. But ironically, that democratization of eating out has produced a new and more hidden tyranny: making people tolerate unhealthy, distracting noise for good food—and then duping them into spending more, drinking more (along with the risk of vulnerable situations that can result from alcohol), and shouting over the din to socialize. By comparison, the worst thing that could happen at one of the upscale establishments of old was using the wrong fork or running afoul of the dress code.
» Reverse Foundation tutorial…but really an interesting ramble on personal beauty.
» I like how Gabbie Hanna describes the process of change. It’s never linear, and always includes setbacks. The mental transformation is the toughest part. If you’re going through any sort of major change, you might find this helpful.
» Gary Vaynerchuk always provides food for thought (edited slightly for clarity):
There’s a reason that people are struggling mentally, and I’m telling you: everybody wants to blame social media. It’s bullshit. It’s parents creating fake environments for children. We’re building zoo animals. When you take a tiger from the Bronx zoo and you put it in the actual jungle, he dies in one second—because he’s not grown up in the actual environment.
You take kids who think they’re good at baseball, because in school up until 12th grade everybody’s good, and then you actually go and play baseball and get struck out 900 times in a row, you go back to your dorm room and start doing cocaine.
“Oh come on, Gary, it doesn’t work like that.”
That’s exactly how it works. …
Creating fake environments is an issue that needs to talked about much more. “[Don’t create] fake environments” doesn’t mean be mean, just don’t create delusion.
“Lean In” is not fundamentally a feminist manifesto. It is a road map for operating within the existing system, perhaps changing it at the margins to make it easier for other women to, well, operate within the system. Sandberg does not spend much time asking whether the system is so screwed up that pushing against it might be the better route toward meaningful change.
Landver believes that the next big lifestyle brand—the next Tory Burch or Martha Stewart, say — will be founded by an influencer. Or several, actually. “As opposed to looking at one big hundred million-dollar brand, we’re looking at building many ten million dollar brands,” says Landver. “I say longtail five times a day. The future is going to be many more small brands focused on smaller segments.”
» Further proof that SM Entertainment’s audio engineers are the real MVPs
» It still blows my mind that more people don’t know about this study on how everybody else can predict liberal behavior but liberals don’t have a clue about anybody but themselves:
Moderates and conservatives were most accurate in their predictions, whether they were pretending to be liberals or conservatives. Liberals were the least accurate, especially those who described themselves as “very liberal.” The biggest errors in the whole study came when liberals answered the Care and Fairness questions while pretending to be conservatives.
» BTS may not have factored in cultural differences, especially their American fanbase’s tendency toward SJWism, when they went hard for the North American market this year. K-pop groups use American and European style tropes out-of-context all the time—except now they’re going to get called on it.
In 2004, a world no-one anticipated came into view. As part of an FDA review of paediatric antidepressant trials at this point, it became clear that all trials in paediatric depression were negative, that all published studies were ghost or company written, in all cases the data were inaccessible and in the case of the published studies, the publications were at odds with the data regulators revealed. The data on both benefits and harms was systematically distorted in publications even in the leading medical journals (5). This came to a head over the issue of suicide in 2004, when New York State filed a fraud action against GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), primarily on the basis that a ghost-written publication of Study 3291 claimed paroxetine worked for and was safe for children who were depressed, when in an internal review it had recognised it didn’t work and had opted to pick out the good bits of this study and publish them (6).
I want to escape into a misty forest at dawn and run toward the light that spills through the trees. I want to cloak myself in velvet and swim into a glittering nebula. I want to discover the truth of God and the universe.
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