Might be fun for you to check out what https://www.brain.fm/science is doing, which takes an alternative approach focusing on generating rhythm and tone tracks that, for lack of a more detailed term 'lull' your brain into focused or relaxed states. I get a lot of mileage out of it when working, don't often use it for relaxation because I find simple nature tracks better for doing standing meditation.
This used to worry me too, but I read this article [1] and it cheered me up! Sure, most of civilisation would likely crumble if centres of production and distribution were nuked and vast tracts of the world would be irradiated, but it's by no means an ELE.
Yep! It's called Xian Cai (salted vegetable) or Suan Cai (sour vegetable) and like basically any other cuisine, there are dozens of variations on it across China. If you look at the picture on the wiki [1] you'll see that it's fermented almost exactly like sauerkraut, albeit whole not sliced.
Fascinating, the first time I heard about this phenomenon is when this amusing video [1] was doing the rounds. Apparently it's a seasonal issue largely linked to them being particularly aggressive in their defence of newly-hatched broods. What's weird though is that in certain magpie-swooping zones, the swooping is selective [2]. It seems quite accepted that corvids can recognise faces and otherwise identify individual humans, but what makes it single out people that haven't attacked it is a real mystery.
I think it's scary too, but maybe for different reasons. It's a step towards building an experience machine [1]. Whilst I fully empathise with DBS as a treatment to otherwise incurable atypically negative mental states, much as I am on-board with VR enabling physically or financially limited persons to enjoy the full gamut of human experience, I baulk at the idea of this becoming mainstream.
Why? Because the implication of a 'happy button' in the hands of everyone and anyone horrifies me. Sure, you and I might have better things to do than to hold that sucker down and experience unending monotone bliss for the remainder of days, but how sure are you that the majority of humanity won't? How many lives might be wasted because someone's instinct was to go for immediate bliss instead of trying to make things better in the long run? It'd be the final drug.
Here's [1] a good rundown of the conspiracy. To wit, it's a conspiracy of two: DuPont wanting to outlaw hemp which could have provided an alternative to Nylon, and Hearst which was heavily invested in wood-pulping machinery for paper production, again for which hemp was a good alternative.
I have trouble with that article due to the tone. There’s no reason to refer to people as ‘potheads’ or mention Jerry Garcia with bitterness and disdain, or at all. It seems the author has an axe to grind with the remnants of 60s culture.
This was eye-opening, thank you. In my experience living in Urban Europe, the late-night market is much more fragmented between small deep-fry focused, chicken-focused, middle-eastern/grill and pizza establishments. Some global fast-food chains do run 24h locations in the denser areas, and typically some chicken chains reach a regional/municipal level of franchising. However, we don't have anything as ubiquitous as Taco Bell, such that you would find one open at 4 AM in the neighbourhood of a small rural town.
