Action Figure Daniel

Blog

  • “Empireworld” by Sathnam Sanghera

    • Britain introduced alcohol to much of the world
    • Empire changed the world’s agriculture
    • Many of Empire’s laws that exploit have morphed into protective laws
    • NGOs are often created to continue the legacy of Empire
    • Relying on an NGO undermines national rights
    • Homophobic (and sodomy) laws were spread to discourage Imperial workers from infidelities
    • Gay marriages were common in Africa mining communities
    • Indian homosexuality was common pre-colonial
    • The Victorian era was obsessed with controlling sex
    • “Britain is basically governed by investigation”
    • Skin color was ancient novelty but not grounds for discrimination
    • Former Spanish colonies tend to have more stable democracies than former British ones

  • “The State of Affairs” by Esther Perel

    • We have an average of 2-3 significant relationships in our life
    • We feel betrayed by violations of ambiguous agreements
    • New definition of a relationship
      • Secrecy
      • Sexual alchemy
      • Emotional involvement
    • Fire needs air to burn
    • Often, the secrecy is what intrigues us
    • “Confusing ideal and the real never goes unpunished.”
    • We get divorced because we think we could be happier
    • All parties are shocked by the revelation of the affair
    • We need to transfer vigilance from the betrayed to the betrayer
    • Volunteer information to remind the betrayed that you still remember the wrong
    • Be careful to recognize the pain rather than trying to solve problems
    • We (in the West) take pride in our “lack of jealous”
    • We want to know that our partners came back to US, because they want us not because they had nowhere else to go
    • Jealousy is a late developing emotion
    • “We feel most vulnerable where we are most insecure”
    • Contributing to the environment that made the affair happen is different from being responsible for it
    • Without a chance to retaliate, we tend to move on faster
    • Truth
      • Is it honest
      • Is it helpful
      • Is it kind
    • Sometimes silence is kindness
    • “Do you really want to know or do you want your partner to know that you have the question?”
    • Ask investigative questions not detective questions
    • Cheaters do not forfeited all rights to privacy
    • Sometimes we are looking for another version of ourselves, not a new partner
    • We balance wanting security and adventure; these comes from different places
    • Infidelity is most disdained but is still legal
    • Breaking the rules is sometimes the point
    • “Eros is a light sleeper”
    • Time never exists on its own, it is what you do in that time

  • “Piping Hot Bees & Boisterous Buzz-Runners” by Thomas D Seeley

    • All bees are basically wild
    • Bees are sensitive to carbon dioxide
    • Hives need enough space to store honey through the winter
    • Scouts “debate” over which nest site to choose
    • Anomalies help show the power of the rules
    • Workers monitor their queen’s location while flying
    • Bees fly on full stomachs
    • The ladies warm up to 95f before taking off
    • Bees do not “shop around” on waggle dances
    • Workers adjust their choosiness based on the availability of nectar
      • They know this by how long it takes to find someone to take their nectar
    • Worker bees are blind to the color red
    • Queen are shaken by nurses to encourage them to “prepare for greater activity”

  • “A Brief History of Mathematics” by Marcus Du Sautoy

    • Calculus is the math of movement
    • Symmetry is something you do to a shape not the shape itself
    • Gaussian distributions help us understand the mean from a variety of samples
    • Every number is either a prime or can be derived by multiplying two prime numbers
    • The maths enable science to answer questions

  • “Why We Sleep” by Matthew Walker, PhD

    • Sleep disruption plays with your hormones, causing you to be more hungry, and spikes blood sugar
    • Fatigue leads to more car accidents than being intoxicated
    • We use sleep to strengthen memories
    • Most living thing have their own internal clocks
    • Even very little sun light resets our internal rhythm
    • Genetics tend to determine chrono type
      • Owls are not owls by choice
    • Melatonin kicks off sleep but does not actually cause sleep
    • Adenosine accumulate once you are awake
      • Caffeine occupies the adenosine receptors so you do not realize how tired you are
      • Decafe is not caffeine free
      • Adenosine requires sleep to draw down
    • It takes about one day to adjust per hour travelled across time zones
    • Prolonged sleep deprivation can require several days to recover from
    • All psychiatric disorders have bad sleep associated with them
      • Sleep management generally helps treatment
    • Sleep deprivation prevents learning new things
    • We replay memories during dreams at slower speeds than originally experienced
      • (Is this why we relive things in dreams and often are caught running slowly or being stuck)?
    • nREM sleep mostly happens early at night with REM happening mostly later
    • nREM sleep is mostly about pruning memories
    • Waking up early, cuts into REM sleep
    • We have “sleep spindles” that layer in “noise” to help us better ignore real noise in the environment
    • Everything with a brain sleeps
      • Only animals and birds REM sleep
    • Animals that sleep longer tend to sleep better
    • Pinnipeds sleep on land and in water, but only REM on land
    • After sleep deprivation, nREM is the most quickest to recover
    • We can never fully recover missed sleep
    • Sleep deprivation triggers more eating because the mind thinks food is scarce
    • The notion of “second sleep” seems to be more of a fashion, not biology
    • Siestas are great for humans
    • Babies moving in the womb are generally asleep
    • Infant sleep deprivation arrests brain development
    • Put your child to bed when they are drowsy, not after they are asleep
    • Any alcohol in the a woman’s blood affects in utero’s ability to sleep well
    • Teenagers need more, later sleep then adults and older children
    • “No child needs caffeine.”
    • Older adults still need as much sleep, they just struggle to get it
    • nREM helps facts memories best
    • Rocking during sleep allows for deeper sleep
    • “Practice plus sleep makes prefect”
    • People do not know how tired they are
    • Sleep deprivation literally shortens your ability to manage emotions
    • Staying awake all night only burns an extra ~140 calories
    • REM sleep + dreams are critical for healthy mind operation
    • Dreaming of emotional trauma helps dissolve emotions related to those memories
    • Dreams help tune our emotional processing centers
    • REM sleep likes to make bizarre and eclectic connections
    • Sleep deprivation kills us
    • “sleep opportunity” (having an appropriate environment) is different from actual sleep
    • Fading light and cool air control the release of melatonin
    • Sleeping cold is good
    • Sleeping pills disconnect your brain but do not enable healthful sleep
    • The original factory whistle was supposed to wake you up so you could get to work on time
    • Don’t hit the Snooze button! It is a small heart-attack multiple times in the morning
    • “REM sleep stands between rationality and lunacy”
    • Amphetamine is a power “awake drug”
    • Some ADHD are actually sleep deprived
    • A lack of sleep increasing the chances of one being unethical