Driving around yesterday, I caught the snippet of an NPR conversation.
The researcher was expounding on the sensitivity of the human system to sleep deprivation. He made the following comment (from memory) - "Every year we run a natural experiment on 1.7 billion people. In the spring we impose the loss of one hour of sleep and in the fall we give them back an extra hour of sleep. It is called daylight savings time. In the spring, in the two weeks after losing an hour of sleep, the rate of heart attacks rises by 24% and in the fall they fall by 21%."
First - I had never thought of the quantification of people who experience daylight savings. It is primarily a feature of OECD countries in the higher and lower latitudes. There are some major outliers, though. China, which geographically covers probably four or five time zones, recognizes only a single national time zone and they do not use daylight savings time. Their clocks do not shift any time of the year, wherever they are in China.
At 1.7 billion people, only 22% of the worlds population experience the biannual ritual of the changing of the clocks. I have lived in seven countries on five continents and worked extensively in another couple of dozen at least. Had you asked me what percentage of the population experience daylight savings clock changing, I would have told you easily the majority. It is an interesting illustration of how even wide and varied experience can still foster blindness of reality.
Second - I don't know that the 24%/21% is quite as conclusive as it sounds initially but it sure is suggestive. The human system is a remarkable product of emergent order and in our modern era we are stress testing it in ways mother nature never anticipated.
Earlier this week I was talking with an Uber driver. I had asked whether he was from that area (downstate New York) and he answered that he was. That he was a local boy. He then framed it in a way I don't think I have ever heard before. He said something to the effect "I am so local I have never been out of this time zone. I was born and grew up here and I have been down to Florida and up to New England. But I have never been outside this time zone."
I thought it an interesting way to put it. A local boy who travelled but didn't travel east or west.
Which ties to an observation which, I think Jared Diamond made, that in general, geography, topography, and environments vary far more traveling north and south than they do going east and west and that therefore early trade patterns tended to be much more east-west than north-south. It was simply easier.
Sunday, November 3, 2019
Saturday, November 2, 2019
If you don't wanna go to fist city
Double click to enlarge.
Fist City
by Loretta Lynn
Oh, you've been makin' your brags around town
That you've been a lovin' my man
But the man I love, when he picks up trash
He puts it in a garbage can
That's what a you look like to me
What I see's a pity
You better close your face and stay outta my way
If you don't wanna go to fist city
If you don't wanna go to fist city
You better detour around my town
'Cause I'll grab you by the hair a the head
And I'll lift you off the ground
I'm not a sayin' my baby's a saint 'cause he ain't
N' that he won't cat around with a kitty
I'm here to tell you gal to lay off my man
If you don't wanna go to fist city
Come on and tell me what you told my friends
If you think you're brave enough
And I'll show you what a real woman is
Since you think you're hot stuff
You'll bite off more than you can chew
If you get to cute or witty
You better move your feet
If you don't wanna eat
A meal that's called fist city
If you don't wanna go to fist city
You better detour around my town
'Cause I'll grab you by the hair a the head
And I'll lift you off the ground
I'm not a sayin' my baby's a saint 'cause he ain't
N' that he won't cat around with a kitty
I'm here to tell you gal to lay off my man
If ya don't wanna go to fist city
I'm here to tell you gal to lay off my man
If you don't wanna go to fist city
Friday, November 1, 2019
Socially constructed reality
For a bunch of good Christians, Babylon Bee is bordering on savage.
Motorcyclist Who Identifies As Bicyclist Sets Cycling World Recordhttps://t.co/MLnIzVYDaV
— The Babylon Bee (@TheBabylonBee) October 25, 2019
Well, if I had three wishes my first would be for a second chance
Double click to enlarge.
No Genie in This Bottle
by Jason Eady
Well, if I had three wishes my first would be for a second chance
To do all those little things I didn't do
Take the poison off my tongue, to stand strong when I cut and run
And be a better man than the one you knew
There ain't no genie in this bottle
And I've be lookin' with every pour
As I get closer to the bottom
I find it just as empty as the one before
If I found that genie and he made the first wish come true
Then I don't guess I'd need him anymore
All would be forgiven, he could take that bottle with him
And I'd shake his hand and walk him to the door
There ain't no genie in this bottle
And I've be lookin' with every pour
As I get closer to the bottom
I find it just as empty as the one before
As I get closer to the bottom
I find I'm just as empty as the one before
The Battle of Lissa, 1866 by Alex Kirchner
The Battle of Lissa, 1866 by Alex Kirchner. The first major sea battle between iron-clads, the fore-runners of battleships.
Click to enlarge.
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