I was a fast-food worker. Let me tell you about burnout. – Vox

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I was a fast-food worker. Let me tell you about burnout. – Vox

So to test your new antidepressant, you need an efficient method of making a lot of rats exhibit anhedonia — that is, making them lose interest in things they used to enjoy, like sugar. How do you think you’d do that? It turns out you don’t need to traumatize them. The most reliable protocol is “chronic mild stress.”

There are many methods of making the lives of experimental animals mildly but chronically miserable — a cage floor that administers random electric shocks; a deep swimming pool with no way to rest or climb out; a stronger “intruder” introduced into the same cage. One neuroscientist actually nicknamed his apparatus the Pit of Despair. But they’re all variations on the same theme: remove all predictability and control from the animal’s life. Then take notes as they gradually lose interest in being alive.

Plant Expert Explains How it Spreads, Burns, and Blinds | Inverse

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Giant Hogweed: Plant Expert Explains How it Spreads, Burns, and Blinds | Inverse

About a century ago, New England garden enthusiasts adopted the British trend of cultivating a towering, white-blossomed plant called giant hogweed in their yards. Considered ‘ornamental’, the plant can grow up to 14 feet tall and cradles bunches of tiny flowers in its stems. It’s already taken root in ten states and was recently found in Virginia, but nobody thinks it’s beautiful anymore. It’s hard to look kindly on a plant that can sear human flesh with a third-degree burn

This Article Won’t Change Your Mind – The Atlantic – Pocket

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This Article Won’t Change Your Mind – The Atlantic – Pocket

In a New York Times article called “The Real Story About Fake News Is Partisanship,” Amanda Taub writes that sharing fake news stories on social media that denigrate the candidate you oppose “is a way to show public support for one’s partisan team—roughly the equivalent of painting your face with team colors on game day.” This sort of information tribalism isn’t a consequence of people lacking intelligence or of an inability to comprehend evidence. Kahan has previously written that whether people “believe” in evolution or not has nothing to do with whether they understand the theory of it—saying you don’t believe in evolution is just another way of saying you’re religious. Similarly, a recent Pew study found that a high level of science knowledge didn’t make Republicans any more likely to say they believed in climate change, though it did for Democrats.

Moose River Plains is really big when you walk

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This past weekend I decided to leave Big Red parked and walk to most of my destinations at Moose River Plains. Walking along Otter Brook Road remind me how truly large Moose River Plains truly is. That’s a blessing but it also means to get to many if not most destinations, motoring is required although I guess the roads also would be a lot of fun to bike, especially in the relatively flat plains.

Thunderstorm Coming to the Plains

July 17, 2019 Morning

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Good morning! What day is it? Hump Day, of course. Half a week until vacation. 🏖Life’s a beach. Then of course, Two weeks to my Teeth Cleaning Day 😃. Mostly cloudy, humid and 76 degrees at the Elm Ave Park & Ride – CDTA. ☁ Raining up north in the Adirondacks, but not here. Calm wind. The dew point is 70 degrees. It was closer to 75 dew point in my bedroom when I was making pasta for lunch in my bedroom. Steam rises. Dew point has been near constant this morning. The skies will clear Friday around 11 am and incredibly hot. But once I get home from work I’ll grab the propane and fill the coolers and I’ll be on my way to Madison County.

I broke down and turned the fan on for a while last night for easy sleeping. 😴 I did cut it down to low by morning and had it off by the time I got up. I just really hate to waste energy and honestly I’d rather be comfortable in a wide range of temperatures, especially if I end up moving to a warmer climate in a few years or decades. The air conditioning on the bus is really nice, but I doubt it will be that cold when I get into the office, although I’ll probably draw the shades when I’m in the office.

Today will have a chance of showers and thunderstorms, then showers likely and possibly a thunderstorm after 11am. Some of the storms could produce heavy rain. Sounds like a muggy summer day. ⛈ Mostly cloudy, with a high of 85 degrees at 2pm. Two degrees above normal. Maximum dew point of 71 at 10am. Calm wind becoming southeast around 5 mph in the afternoon. Chance of precipitation is 60%. New rainfall amounts between a quarter and half of an inch possible. A year ago, we had partly cloudy skies. It was very sticky. The high last year was 80 degrees. The record high of 99 was set in 1900.

The sun will set at 8:29 pm with dusk around 9:03 pm, which is 42 seconds earlier than yesterday. 🌇 Sunsets are now before 8:30. At sunset, watch out for thunderstorms 🌩 and temperatures around 81 degrees. The dew point will be 70 degrees. The heat index around sunset will be 74. ⛱ There will be a calm wind. Today will have 14 hours and 56 minutes of daytime, an increase of one minute and 34 seconds over yesterday.

Tonight will have showers likely and possibly a thunderstorm before midnight, then a chance of showers and thunderstorms between midnight and 1am, then a chance of showers after 1am. Some of the storms could produce heavy rain. Cloudy 🌧, with a low of 71 degrees at 5am. Nine degrees above normal. Maximum dew point of 71 at 6pm. Southeast wind around 5 mph becoming calm after midnight. Chance of precipitation is 60%. New rainfall amounts between a quarter and half of an inch possible. In 2018, we had partly cloudy skies in the evening, which became mostly clear by the early hours of the morning. It was somewhat humid. It got down to 62 degrees. The record low of 46 occurred back in 1939.

That article I shared this morning about living off-grid in San Luis valley, really is kind of fascinating. 🏠 I am not into trailer living, and I think making a life out in the desert must be hard, but there are many places that are much cheaper and freer then living the city in New York State. I don’t like Colorado as I see where that state is going politically — to the left — with more and more gun restrictions, and the cheap parts of the state aren’t really that nice. I’ve had a fascination with South Dakota, primarily because nobody ever talks about it — Missouri and Idaho are nice, but it seems like there is so much going on up there. But at any rate, I still need to save some more money, and I still have family locally here in New York, at least for a few more years.🏔

On this day in 1944, Near the San Francisco Bay, two ships laden with ammunition for the war explode in Port Chicago, California, killing 320. 💣Also on this day, another deadly tragedy. In 1981, A structural failure leads to the collapse of a walkway at the Hyatt Regency in Kansas City, Missouri killing 114 people and injuring more than 200. It was a stupid engineering mistake, the connectors weren’t probably hooked up on the bridges that spanned the hotel. Amazingly though, the hotel still stands, and it is still renting out rooms, but the bridges are long gone.🏦

They’re still talking about a hot weekend, maybe a little more unsettled in the Finger Lakes, but that’s to be expected with the heat and humidity. Saturday, mostly sunny and hot, with a high near 95. ☀Maximum dew point of 74 at 7am. Sunday, scattered showers and thunderstorms after 2pm. Partly sunny and hot, with a high near 92. ⛈ Chance of precipitation is 30%. Maximum dew point of 71 at 6am. Typical average high for the weekend is 83 degrees.

All and all next week looks fairly nice, but I’m going to keep watching the forecast. Maybe some rain showers and thunderstorms, and maybe a cloudy day or two, ☁ but maybe much better then in recent years. It’s all because I’m not bringing my kayak, and I added the second battery to the solar system in my truck.😎 And except for the weekend, not unreasonably hot — by later in the week I may want my hoodie as it’s going to be cool in the evening.

As previously noted, there are 2 weeks until my Teeth Cleaning Day 😃 when the sun will be setting at 8:16 pm with dusk at 8:48 pm. On that day in 2018, we had partly sunny and temperatures between 86 and 67 degrees. Typically, the high temperature is 82 degrees. We hit a record high of 98 back in 1917.

Rocks on River