OMM (On My Mind) – September 2023 -- #1
~ findings & research ~
::: The Natural World :::
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A Long-Lost Species — the “True Giant Wombat” — Has Been Discovered in Australia (Nice News)
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Ospreys: First breeding pair in Ireland for centuries (BBC News)
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Rarely Glimpsed Shark That Lives For Centuries Unexpectedly Surfaces in Caribbean (Science Alert)
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::: The Arts & The Literary World:::
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This is… very strange.
“Jordan Peterson Now Tweets in a Strange Poetic Style. We Asked Actual Poets to Review Him” (Rolling Stone)
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Writing Problems: Poetry Book Sales (Sean Singer’s Substack – The Sharpener)
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How Literary Journal Publishing Built My Career (Lit Mag News)
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Peek Inside Agnieszka Pilat’s Artist Residency at SpaceX (artnet)
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This remains humorous.
DJ Khaled Reviews Drake’s Poetry Book: ‘He Wrote a Sentence!’
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Are you doing what you said you wanted to do? (Seth Godin)
“If you want to be a poet, write poetry. Every day. Show us your work.”
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The Le Guin precepts (Seth Godin)
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Poetry Foundation awards for Service in Poetry
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Ada Limón’s project as poet laureate (LOC)
U.S. Poet Laureate Ada Limón to Publish Anthology, Bring Poetry to National Parks as part of Signature Project, “You Are Here”
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(Well, you may already know a few of them)
Fun for all us word nerds. (Dictionary.com)
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Yet another way to find the next book(s) to read.
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::: Small Explorations & Deep Dives :::
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Helping people who struggle with suicidal ideation. (Huff Post)
An uncomfortable but important topic we, as a society, need to address openly.
This is an important read.
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Saving lives.
Narcan (naloxone) will be available OTC.
It’s too pricey but it’s a start.
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Curious about potentially running for office?
Learn more here.
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A law to protect people with sesame allergies has made the seed harder to avoid (NPR)
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Canada study debunks stereotypes of homeless people’s spending habits (Guardian)
“The widely held stereotype that people experiencing homelessness would be more likely to spend extra cash on drugs, alcohol and “temptation goods” has been upended by a study that found a majority used a $7,500 payment mostly on rent, food, housing, transit and clothes.”
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Exposure to Microplastics Linked to Behavioral Changes and Brain Accumulation, Study Finds
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Sadness, Depression, or the Blues? Maybe it’s Weltschmerz (Psychology Today)
“Translated literally from the German language as “world pain,” Weltschmerz is a sense of weariness, sadness, or melancholy at the evils or perils of the world. Often experienced as a sense of apathy or a mood of sentimental grief, Weltschmerz is caused by comparing the actual state of the world with an idealized longing for things to be different.”
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Single-Dose Psilocybin Treatment for Major Depressive Disorder: A Randomized Clinical Trial (JAMA)
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The marketing challenge of getting people to stop thinking of something as weird or other.
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Love It or Loathe It: Instacart Reveals America’s Most Polarizing Foods (Instacart)
Anchovies
Black licorice
Oysters
Beets
Blue cheese
Okra
Capers
Brussels Sprouts
Fennel
Olives
Mushrooms
Cilantro
Pickles
Mayonnaise
See link for additional interesting findings.
For example: “Nearly 7 in 10 Americans (69%) say they have encountered a food that they initially disliked but eventually grew to enjoy.”
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“Hunger, Food Insecurity Still Higher Than Before Pandemic” (Gallup)
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Do you buy it?
Social media is dead: Group chats and messaging apps killed it (Business Insider)
Is Substack an example of the answer? I for one hope Substack, and other niche areas that involve safe spaces for honest discourse without excessive noise, is the direction we’re leading. With that being said, it remains important we do cloister ourselves in even deeper bubbles. The country is already fractured enough. We need to be able to talk to people with differences of opinion in a civil manner.
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France is destroying a bunch of wine. Why? Well, it’s complicated. There’s gray area. Still, in many ways, it feels like a huge waste.
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Adam Driver hits out at big film studios over Hollywood strike
Lots of good words here where Adam stands with Sag/Union demands.
There’s also an interesting quote at the end of the article about acting roles in cultures that are not your own.
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There are recent articles and chatter about “population collapse”…
The current world population Is approximately 8 billion humans.
There are conflicting numbers when it comes to Earth’s “carrying capacity” for the overall number of humans. Based on light research, one factor is the way in which humans live. If we all lived rather modestly Earth could sustain more humans than if we lived what you might call a “Middle Class Western Lifestyle”.
It’s been pointed out to me that talk of “population collapse” is sometimes a dog whistle. It’s notable who the people are that are stoking fear about this.
If the population does not collapse, we may be on track to surpass Earth’s “population capacity” (by some estimates) around the year 2050. In 2050, there are also great fears about the state of our climate.
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Shout-out to graphic designers & those who simply appreciate effective branding.
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The empathy of useful feedback (Seth Godin)
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The Monthly Cost of Buying vs. Renting a House in America
"In August 2023, mortgage rates rose to the highest level in 23 years, with the national average 30-year fixed mortgage hitting 7.48%. As a result, the median rent in America is approximately $1,850 per month, about 30% cheaper than the median cost to buy, standing at $2,700 per month. This gap represents the largest difference between renting and buying in U.S. history.” (Visual Capitalist)
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But what if it’s voluntary? (Seth Godin)
“Only 9% of the office workers in Manhattan go to their office five days a week now.”
“Is it labor if we get to choose?”
“Far too many people are being left behind as the market for our effort bifurcates. Too many people are indentured or stuck, under-appreciated and underpaid.”
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The World's Favorite Accents, Ranked According to Twitter
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"A paid subscription tier would be a huge departure from Meta’s hyper-efficient core business — a $110bn+ advertising monolith that's leaps ahead of its rivals in extracting value from users. Despite being a free service, Facebook alone rakes in nearly $18 every single month for each one of its US & Canadian users — substantially more than the $10-15 a month you might pay for services like Netflix, Spotify or Amazon Prime." (Chartr / NYT)
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Adults under 30 are more likely than older Americans to have a current U.S. passport (YouGov)
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This is an embarrassment of riches…
Here are a few highlights:
Trails anywhere you go
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‘We Have a Deep Hatred of Taking Food Seriously’: An Interview with Alicia Kennedy (Hazlitt)
“I try not to say the word “should” because there is a big overlap in the vegan community with people who have had eating disorders. There are also people who nutritionally need to consume a certain amount of meat. I’m mindful of that. I don’t want to put more pressure on folks who are just trying to get through the day in terms of their relationship to food.”
“In a chapter titled “The Future of Food,” you’re critical of food tech, and fake meats from Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods. You describe yourself as a techno-pessimist, and you write, “I always envision a dystopian time in which a vertical urban farm run by a benevolent-looking tech bro sells us subscriptions to lettuce the way we pay for Spotify…”
“So I always think that the best way to convince people that they can give up meat or dairy, at least for a day or a week, is to feed them something good. That can get kind of lost in much of the vegan discourse. I think vegetarians, and I say this now obviously as a vegetarian, have done a pretty good job [discussing] food. But I feel a lot of vegan discourse is very, very grounded in animal rights and the environment. Rightfully so, but it gets to the food last, and I think, for too many people, you need to get to the food first. So that’s what I’m trying to do with this book: to show that if we take a food-first approach, this is what’s possible.”
Want more on veg-based lifestyles? Check out my poetry collection Meatless (Plan B Press).
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The Next Big Test (Important, Not Important)
I start my day every day asking “How can I help?”
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“It has been argued that great expectations of favorable life circumstances in the future should be associated with life satisfaction, but if the expectations are unrealistically high they could also be the basis of disappointment and low life satisfaction.” (Inc.)
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‘Jawn’ is being added to Dictionary.com: Philadelphia reacts (Billy Penn)
To answer the question— No, jawn doesn’t need a definition. It’s antithetical to the whole idea of the word. It’s a word that can be any part of speech.
Here’s where I can’t help but mention I have a poetry collection entitled JAWN (Moonstone Press)
Here’s a review.
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The paradox of insular language (Seth Godin)
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Did you know there’s an annual yard sale that spans 690-miles from Michigan to Alabama?
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Inertia in question.
Mistranslation of Newton’s First Law Discovered after Nearly 300 Years (Scientific American)
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RIP Medical Debt helps forgive $1.6 million owed by Philadelphians (Inquirer)
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Bummer.
Speech study finds classic Georgia accent fading fast (phys.org)
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In defense of naps and people having habits that differ from our own.
People’s habits, including sleep, vary widely, and this is biologically unsurprising, and we should practice withholding judgment for our differences. (Aeon)
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You’re not imagining it, they’re building new apartment complexes everywhere.
“The US is on course to complete construction on over 460,000 new apartment units in 2023 — the highest figure on record according to estimates from industry experts at RentCafe — with 33,000 new apartments in the New York Metro area alone.” (Chartr)
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Mass Disqualification
“The disqualified runners represented more than one-third of the 30,000-person field that entered the Aug. 27 race.” (ESPN)
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Florida Man strikes again
“Florida man arrested after trying to cross Atlantic in hamster wheel vessel” (BBC)
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Spoiler Alert: The reason Santa is a problem is that sooner or later, reality arrives. (Seth Godin)
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The Ultimate Guide to Sandwich Breads (Eater)
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Typical day in any child’s life…
“Girl, 7, Finds 'Beautiful' 2.95-Carat Diamond at Arkansas State Park While Celebrating Her Birthday” (People)
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Another attempt to calculate the price of happiness.
Average personal income in the U.S.? $37,638
Price of happiness: $105,000
Your best chance? Maybe… Knoxville.
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