Remember the Ozone Layer?
It’s still there, NASA tracks it, and scientists are still worried about it, though atmospheric levels of chemicals that damage it are slowly declining. Excerpt from – Remember the Ozone Layer? ; ; ;
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One Crazy Fact That Science Says Could Decide Game 7 of the NBA Finals
Mother Jones
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When the Golden State Warriors and the Cleveland Cavaliers tip off Sunday night for Game 7 of the NBA Finals, don’t be dismayed if your team is slightly behind at half time. In fact, it might be a good thing.
That’s the surprising finding of a study that Jonah Berger—a marketing professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania—published several years ago. Along with his colleague Devin Pope, Berger found that NBA teams that were losing by just one point at the end of the second quarter were more likely to win than teams leading by a point. Why? On this week’s episode of the Inquiring Minds podcast, Berger tells host Indre Viskontas that it all comes down to motivation. “They say, ‘I’m almost there, I’m close to winning, but I’m not there yet,” says Berger. “It encourages them to work harder.”
It’s a phenomenon that goes beyond basketball and that, according to Berger, has serious real-world implication. As he and Pope wrote in the New York Times in 2009:
Understanding what motivates employees, researchers and, yes, sports teams, has important implications. Encouraging people to see themselves as slightly behind others should increase motivation. Companies competing to win contracts or research prizes would be wise to focus employees on ways their competitors are a little ahead.
Berger is known for his 2013 bestseller Contagious: Why Things Catch On, where he unpacks the social science behind why word-of-mouth publicity is better than any ad and why anti-drug commercials could actually lead to an increase in drug use. His latest book is Invisible Influence: The Hidden Forces That Shape Behavior. In it, Berger writes about the power of influence and why we conform in some situations and rebel in others. According to Berger, your attraction to a certain sports car, designer handbag, catchy pop song, or good-looking person has less to do with your actual preferences than you might think. “It also depends on social dynamics and the fact that we tend to follow others,” Berger says.
What becomes popular is seldom the just result of objective measures of quality. Berger points out that before Elvis Presley was “The King,” he was told he couldn’t sing. People told Walt Disney he wasn’t creative. And publishers repeatedly turned down J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter before Bloomsbury picked it up in 1997. (The series made history when the seventh book sold 8.3 million copies in the first 24 hours after it was released.)
Social influence helps us form likes and dislikes, and it also fires up our competitive edge. For example, while studies show that simply educating residents on how to save energy isn’t particularly effective, hinting that they’re not “keeping up with the Joneses” can have a much bigger impact. When software company Opower informed residents on their bill that some of their neighbors were being more energy efficient than they were, it led to decreases in consumption.
So as you crowd around the television, clenching your fists during Game 7 this weekend, it’s worth remembering that the same competitive spirt driving Steph Curry and LeBron James can help you save a few bucks on your electric bill.
Inquiring Minds is a podcast hosted by neuroscientist and musician Indre Viskontas and Kishore Hari, the director of the Bay Area Science Festival. To catch future shows right when they are released, subscribe to Inquiring Minds via iTunes or RSS. You can follow the show on Twitter at @inquiringshow and like us on Facebook.
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One Crazy Fact That Science Says Could Decide Game 7 of the NBA Finals
Economies of Scale: Smart Ideas to Fight Fish Fraud
Mother Jones
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When you buy fish from the grocery store, it’s not always clear exactly what you’re getting. The industry is fragmented and murky, plagued by seafood fraud—when fishermen or processors take cheaper, lower quality fish and disguise or mislabel it to try and make more money. Don’t count on regulators to catch this deception. In 2009, the Government Accountability Office took a hard look at the three agencies responsible for detecting seafood fraud, and concluded they were failing to “effectively collaborate with each other”—putting consumers’ wallets and health at risk.
Monica Jain, the founder and executive director of Manta Consulting Inc.—and also our guest on this week’s episode of Bite—believes innovative businesses may hold the key to solving some of the industry’s woes. Drawing on a background in marine biology and decades of experience in environmental consulting, in 2013 Jain founded the Fish 2.0 conference, which pairs smart seafood start-ups with investors looking to make an impact.
At Fish 2.0 2015, held at Stanford in November, entrepreneurs from 37 companies pitched everything from portable algae farms to skateboards made from reclaimed nylon fishing nets to a room of tony impresarios.
“Take out your duct tape, paper clips, tools,” urged Jain in her opening speech. “Think like this guy!” she exclaimed, as the screen behind her flashed to a cheesy poster for MacGyver, the ’90s television show about the secret agent whose name has become synonymous with resourcefulness in any situation. “If we all do it, I think we can change the future of the oceans.”
Several of the companies that pitched at Fish 2.0 focused on making seafood more transparent and safer to eat. Here are a few that just might have landed the next big idea:
Better tracking: Vessel tracking systems are little boxes placed on boats that work with GPS and satellite systems to follow where fish is being caught. Some new versions have cameras that capture footage, says Jain, helping to show whether the boat is complying with quotas, using the right gear, and throwing bycatch—sea creatures caught accidentally—back into the ocean. Pelagic Data Systems makes a solar-powered box that sends data via cellular networks, marketed to small-scale fishermen who can’t necessarily afford fancy new technology. The company hopes to make it easier for fishermen to gather and pass along information about what they catch.
Snazzier transparency tools: TRUFish hopes to create “fraud-free” fish. The company’s founder, Roxanne Nanninga, teamed up with a lab at Duke University to use DNA-sequencing to verify the true genetics of any type of fish, “fresh or frozen,” no matter what’s on the label.
Thoughtful brands: Let’s be honest—not many of us know how to distinguish tilapia from cod or halibut after it’s been skinned, fileted, and frozen. So it can be tricky to know when we’re the victims of seafood fraud. Several seafood brands now provide customers with detailed information about a fish filet’s source. California-based Salty Girl Seafood (deemed the early stage business with the “strongest market potential” at last year’s Fish 2.0 competition) sells pre-marinated filets that arrive in packaging displaying the species of fish, where it was caught, and a code customers can enter online to view more details about what they’re eating.
Farmed fish redemption: Love the Wild, based in landlocked Colorado, promotes traceable farmed fish, which arrives with a sauce so you can quickly whip up a dinner of “Red Trout with Salsa Verde” or “Catfish with Cajun Creme.” Though fish farming historically has a bad rap—mostly based on mistakes made by massive unregulated fish farms in Asia—aquaculture is undergoing something of a renaissance in the United States. Fish farmers control every step of the growing process, which makes it easier for interested farmers to raise food in an environmentally friendly fashion. Says Jain: “People want their systems to be less wasteful and polluting because those are not just better for the environment—they’re more profitable. It creates more production risk to do it unsustainably.”
Bite is Mother Jones‘ new food politics podcast. Listen to all of our episodes here, or by subscribing in iTunes, Stitcher, or via RSS.
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Rare Visitor to Taiwan Is a Bird-Watcher’s Dream
The only Siberian crane ever seen in Taiwan set off a frenzy by sightseers, the hiring of a 24-hour guard and environmental efforts to welcome such migratory species. Source article: Rare Visitor to Taiwan Is a Bird-Watcher’s Dream ; ; ;
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A Girl from a Nairobi Slum Issues a Resonant Call for Post-Tribal Unity in Kenya
As tribal and political tensions build ahead of Kenya’s 2017 elections, a 10-year-old slum dweller issues a spirited call for unity. View original article: A Girl from a Nairobi Slum Issues a Resonant Call for Post-Tribal Unity in Kenya ; ; ;
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A Girl from a Nairobi Slum Issues a Resonant Call for Post-Tribal Unity in Kenya
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Tagged africa, clean-water, edition, energy, g & f, itunes, kondo, poverty, store
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Bleaching May Have Killed Half the Coral on the Northern Great Barrier Reef, Scientists Say
Current bleaching along the Australian reef is the most extreme ever recorded, although researchers say damage in the south appears to be less severe. Original source: Bleaching May Have Killed Half the Coral on the Northern Great Barrier Reef, Scientists Say ; ; ;
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Bleaching May Have Killed Half the Coral on the Northern Great Barrier Reef, Scientists Say
Posted in alo, eco-friendly, FF, For Dummies, G & F, GE, LAI, Monterey, ONA, oven, solar, solar power, Uncategorized
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Time for Horseshoe Crabs and the Shorebirds That Love Them
In late spring, the crabs return to shallow bays in and around New York to mate after a winter in deeper water. Birds that feast on their eggs wait hungrily. Source article: Time for Horseshoe Crabs and the Shorebirds That Love Them ; ; ;
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You’ve geeked out over “An Inconvenient Truth.” Watch these next.
You’ve geeked out over “An Inconvenient Truth.” Watch these next.
By Clayton Aldernon May 24, 2016Share
Along with a good chunk of the environmental space, Grist is celebrating the 10-year anniversary of the release of An Inconvenient Truth, the Oscar-winning documentary that dragged climate change in front of the eyeballs of millions. (Check out our complete oral history of the film and interviews with the activists, politicians, and artists it influenced.)
Perhaps you’re in celebration mode, too, and have re-watched the documentary in all its early-2000s Keynote glory. (If not, you can for free today!) Perhaps you’re feeling inspired. Stand tall! Sub out that incandescent sack of filaments for a lovely compact fluorescent lamp! You’re an environmentalist!
Now wipe your brow with a recyclable, grab an armload of in-season fruit, and binge watch these classic environmental docs next.
Food, Inc.
From Participant Media (the same folks that produced An Inconvenient Truth), Food, Inc. tells the story of our utterly zany industrial food system. After watching, this author stopped eating fast food for good (though, to be honest, not for lack of desire). Watch: Netflix.
Gasland
Josh Fox’s documentary on hydraulic fracturing helped launch the anti-fracking movement. A true conversation about climate change isn’t “possible without the awareness An Inconvenient Truth brought,” he told Grist, but here’s a conversation-starter, by way of the energy system. Watch: Netflix.
Chasing Ice
Photographer James Balog traveled to the Arctic to capture photos of dramatically receding — and in some cases, disappearing — ice. If you weren’t already convinced climate change is serious, these glaciers beg to differ. Watch: Netflix.
This Changes Everything
When Naomi Klein published This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. the Climate in 2014, she pointed to climate change as an opportunity to rework our entire economic system. But what about the people in that system? The film project of the same name is, according to director Avi Lewis, “a portrait of community struggle around the world on the front lines of fossil fuel extraction and the climate crisis.”
For the optimal dose of anger and action, don’t sub the book out for the movie: Soak ’em both in back-to-back. Watch: iTunes, Amazon.
Under the Dome
China has an air pollution problem. In Under the Dome, that problem is laid out with pressing slideshow wizardry. Remind you of another environmental movie? Deborah Seligsohn, former principal adviser to the World Resources Institute’s China energy and climate program, points to the documentary as An Inconvenient Truth’s most immediate descendent. “In four days, it had 250 million views on the web. That’s the influence,” she told Grist. Watch: YouTube (below!).
Catching the Sun
Catching the Sun confronts the big questions imposed by a burgeoning global solar industry. Is a 100-percent solar-powered world achievable? And if so, who stands to benefit? Director Shalini Kantayya has called mainstream environmentalism “a thing for the privileged.” As she told Grist, “If you have extra money, you can put solar panels on your home or pay for organic food.”
The documentary is Kantayya’s take on where environmentalism should be heading. Spoiler alert: It’s a story of hope, not doom. Watch: Netflix.
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You’ve geeked out over “An Inconvenient Truth.” Watch these next.
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How to Run Faster
Mother Jones
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If you want to become a better runner, the obvious answer is to run more. Practice, practice, practice. Well, maybe not. It turns out that more time laced up, running longer distances, may not be the best way to improve. These days, many athletes are ditching long runs for interval training—and for good reason. Pushing the human body to maximum capacity, for shorter amounts of time, forces it to adapt quickly and could even change its physiology in the process.
Interval training helps the cardiovascular system by improving the body’s ability to use oxygen and insulin. It makes arteries more elastic than slower-paced exercise does, and some say it helps burn belly-fat. It isn’t just for athletes: Scientists in Denmark have found that patients with Type 2 Diabetes who did intervals of intense walking had enhanced fitness and better blood-glucose levels compared to a control group that walked at a moderate pace for an extended period of time.
If you’re not one for getting sweaty, running isn’t unlike the many other hobbies at which you might be desperate to improve. There’s tons of emerging science that can help show you how to get better—and that explains what separates the good from the best. On this week’s episode of the Inquiring Minds podcast, musician and neuroscientist Indre Viskontas talks with Swedish psychologist Anders Ericsson about what it takes to become great. You can listen below:
If you’re familiar with the 10,000-hour theory from Malcolm Gladwell’s book Outliers, you may have heard of Ericsson’s work. Gladwell argued that we can become experts at a sport, musical instrument, or hobby in part by logging more than 10,000 hours doing it. Ericsson, who says Gladwell “misinterpreted” some of his work, argues that it’s not merely time that’s important. He points to what’s called “deliberate practice“—putting mindfulness into our chord progressions, tennis back swings, or Spanish vocabulary review—as one of the keys to becoming an expert. People often mistake the results of deliberate practice for raw talent, Ericsson says.
“It’s the belief that people are born with this thing, and it’s their job to find it,” he says. “We are arguing that you need to build it.”
In Ericsson’s new book, Peak: Secrets from the New Science of Expertise—co-authored with Robert Pool—he argues that becoming great at an activity is not about practicing hard enough to fulfill one’s potential, but practicing well enough to maintain motivation. And as for the willpower supposedly needed to become an expert? Ericsson balks at that idea and instead says that experts produce a continued enjoyment in their playing or performance, which leads them engage in yet more deliberate practice. So in short: If you don’t like what you are doing, you’ll probably have trouble becoming great at it.
There’s another habit that Ericsson says is helpful for improving performance: rest. In the early 1990’s, he and his team found that elite violinists slept an hour more each night than average ones—and they frequently took naps, as well. So as you strive for greatness, you might want to consider spending a little less time practicing and a bit more time sleeping. Are you listening, Donald Trump?
Inquiring Minds is a podcast hosted by neuroscientist and musician Indre Viskontas and Kishore Hari, the director of the Bay Area Science Festival. To catch future shows right when they are released, subscribe to Inquiring Minds via iTunes or RSS. You can follow the show on Twitter at @inquiringshow, like us on Facebook, and check out show notes and other cool stuff on Tumblr.
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How Do You Move a City? Ask Kiruna, Sweden
It has nothing to do with climate change: The Arctic Circle city will be moved about two miles east so it doesn’t collapse into the mine underneath. Link: How Do You Move a City? Ask Kiruna, Sweden ; ; ;
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