Anxiety evolved to help us -- what went wrong? A neuroscientist explains.

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Anxiety evolved to help us -- what went wrong? A neuroscientist explains.     Anxiety is a feature of evolution, not a bug. That doesn’t make it less uncomfortable, though. The good news is that we can harness it to our benefit, says Wendy Suzuki, a neuroscientist and the author of “Good Anxiety.” By tapping into what she calls the six “superpowers” of anxiety, we can redirect these uncomfortable feelings into positive outcomes.Suzuki explains the neurological root of anxiety, including how the amygdala automatically activates when we are scared or stressed. To make matters worse, the prefrontal cortex — the rational, executive function center of the brain — shuts down when we need it most. Continued here

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The Ant, the Grasshopper, and the Antidote to the Cult of More: A Lovely Vintage Illustrated Poem About the Meaning and Measure of Enough     Each month, I spend hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars keeping The Marginalian going. For seventeen years, it has remained free and ad-free and alive thanks to patronage from readers. I have no staff, no interns, not even an assistant — a thoroughly one-woman labor of love that is also my life and my livelihood. If this labor has made your own life more livable in the past year (or the past decade), please consider aiding its sustenance with a one-time or loyal donation. Your support makes all the difference.“Enough is so vast a sweetness, I suppose it never occurs, only pathetic counterfeits,” Emily Dickinson lamented in a love letter. In his splendid short poem about the secret of happiness, Kurt Vonnegut exposed the taproot of our modern suffering as the gnawing sense that what we have is not enough, that what we are is not enough. This is our modern curse: A century of conspicuous consumption has trained us to be dutiful citizens of the Republic of Not Enough, swearing allegiance to the marketable myth of scarcity, hoarding toilet paper for the apocalypse. Along the way, we have unlearned how to live wide-eyed with wonder at what Hermann Hesse called “the little joys” — those unpurchasable, unstorable emblems of aliveness that abound the moment we look up from our ledger of lack. Continued here

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The Simple Power of Communicating with Kindness     In today’s world a host of issues are eating away at our connections with each other: Lack of focus, high-speed interactions, political polarization seeping into professional interactions, lack of trust. It’s easy to let daily civilities go by the wayside — or to approach difficult conversations with anger and ferocity — but, the author tells us, her experience as a corporate communications executive points to the benefits for leaders who double down on kindness instead. She outlines three tactics that work: Breaking down defensiveness with graciousness, giving credit, and making space. Continued here

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Fraughan fool: Ireland's whipped cream and local berry treat     Along hedgerows and up Ireland's boggy hillsides grow small, wild berries, sweetened by summer sun and heralding the beginning of harvest. These purple berries are known as fraughans, from the Irish fraochán. Other names include herts (hurts or hursts), bilberry, whortleberry, whimberry or cowberry. They are the wild cousin to the cultivated blueberry, with an intense sweetness and juiciness that belies their diminutive size.Their peak ripeness coincides with harvest-time celebrations, such as hay making, an important time of feasting and festivals throughout Ireland. On the first Sunday in August, it's customary for local people to descend upon places where fraughans flourish to pick and gorge on as many as they can. This day is known as Fraughan Sunday, also Garland Sunday, and coincides with the old Celtic festival of Lughnasa, one of four important "cross-quarter days" that occur at the midpoint between each solstice and equinox. Continued here

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Are big cats prowling the UK? What science tells us     Rumours that there are big cats in Britain stubbornly keep cropping up. The thought of a large predator lurking in the rural landscapes of Britain is an exciting one. The most recent widely published claim of a big black cat in the UK does actually show a photo of a big cat species, which can be identified by the small ears relative to the size of the head. But this image turns out to have been photoshopped. The original image can be found on Getty Images, using the search term “big black cat sitting in grass”. Continued here

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Niger's resource paradox: what should make the country rich has made it a target for predators     A month after the coup in Niger that toppled the democratically elected civilian government of Mohamed Bazoum, the country’s neighbours are still debating the possibility of military intervention. The Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas) – a coalition of west African countries, which includes Niger – has said it intends to send in a taskforce to topple the military junta led by General Abdourahamane Tchiani, which ousted Bazoum on July 26. Continued here

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How Russia is fighting for allies among the Brics countries using 'memory diplomacy'     Senior Economist, IMD World Competitiveness Center, International Institute for Management Development (IMD) Since the start of the Ukraine war, there have been numerous diplomatic visits by Russian officials to Africa and Latin America aiming at boosting Russia’s global influence. Continued here

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Plant-based meat sales are stagnating - our research suggests playing down its green benefits could attract more consumers     It’s difficult to tell if the recent wave of anti-vegan sentiment has affected the plant-based meat market, but denigrating the image of vegans has certainly gone mainstream. Alongside negative comments about people who don’t eat meat by figures like Piers Morgan and Jeremy Clarkson, anti-vegan rhetoric has even slipped into political discourse: Suella Braverman recently referred to supporters of Just Stop Oil campaigners as “Guardian-reading, tofu-eating wokerati”. It seems our protein choices have become a surprisingly loaded issue. Continued here

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Hotels and employment aren't major 'pull factors' for refugees - here's what really draws people to move     People make decisions about where to live, when to leave and where to move based on several complex factors. Among policymakers and people who study immigration, the term “push” factor is used to describe what drives people to leave a country (for example, violence, persecution or poverty).For many years, the UK and other governments have claimed they can stop or reduce irregular migration by removing “pull” factors – those that attract people to a particular country. These might include a generous public welfare system or job opportunities. Continued here

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Why Japan has started pumping water from Fukushima into the Pacific - and should we be concerned?     Japan’s decision to release water from the Fukushima nuclear power plant has been greeted with horror by the local fishing industry as well as China and several Pacific Island states. China – which together with Hong Kong imports more than US$1.1bn (£866m) of seafood from Japan every year – has slapped a ban on all seafood imports from Japan, citing health concerns.Tokyo has asked for the ban to be lifted immediately. The Japanese prime minister, Fumio Kishida, told reporters on Thursday: “We strongly encourage discussion among experts based on scientific grounds.” Japan has previously criticised China for spreading “scientifically unfounded claims”. Continued here

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How educational research could play a greater role in K-12 school improvement     Even prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, test scores were beginning to decline. Results from the 2019 National Assessment of Educational Progress,, or NAEP – the most representative assessment of what elementary and middle school students know across specific subjects – show a widening gap between the highest and lowest achievement levels on the NAEP for fourth grade mathematics and eighth grade reading between 2017-19. During the same period, NAEP outcomes show stagnated growth in reading achievement among fourth graders. By eighth grade, there is a greater gap in reading achievement between the highest- and lowest-achieving students.Some education experts have even suggested that the chances for progress get dimmer for students as they get older. For instance, in a 2019-2020 report to Congress, Mark Schneider, the Institute of Educational Sciences director, wrote: “for science and math, the longer students stay in school, the more likely they are to fail to meet even NAEP’s basic performance level.” Continued here

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How some Muslim and non-Muslim rappers alike embrace Islam's greeting of peace     Ever since the United States’ “war on terror” began, American media has been rife with stereotypes of Muslims as violent, foreign threats. Advocates trying to push back against this characterization sometimes emphasize that “Islam means peace,” since the two words are derived from the same Arabic root.Indeed, the traditional Muslim greeting “al-salamu alaykum” means “peace be upon you.” Some Americans were already familiar with the phrase, thanks to an unexpected source: hip-hop culture, which often incorporated the Arabic phrase. Continued here

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Screen time is contributing to chronic sleep deprivation in tweens and teens - a pediatric sleep expert explains how critical sleep is to kids' mental health     With the start of a new school year comes the inevitable battle to get kids back into a healthy bedtime routine. In many cases, this likely means resetting boundaries on screen use, especially late in the evenings. But imposing and enforcing those rules can be easier said than done.And it is a vicious cycle: Both a lack of sleep and the heightened activity involved in the consumption of social media and video games before bedtime can exacerbate or even trigger anxiety and depression that warrant intervention. Continued here

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AI scores in the top percentile of creative thinking     Of all the forms of human intellect that one might expect artificial intelligence to emulate, few people would likely place creativity at the top of their list. Creativity is wonderfully mysterious – and frustratingly fleeting. It defines us as human beings – and seemingly defies the cold logic that lies behind the silicon curtain of machines. New AI tools like DALL-E and Midjourney are increasingly part of creative production, and some have started to win awards for their creative output. The growing impact is both social and economic – as just one example, the potential of AI to generate new, creative content is a defining flashpoint behind the Hollywood writers strike. Continued here

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Trump out on bail - a criminal justice expert explains the system of cash bail     For several days, former President Donald Trump and his 18 co-defendants in a Georgia election interference case trickled into the Fulton County Jail in Atlanta to surrender for arrest, fingerprinting and mugshots before the noon Aug. 25, 2023, deadline. Charged in the same alleged conspiracy to overturn results in Georgia’s 2020 presidential election, the defendants did not draw the same bail agreements or amounts.Trump’s bail was set at US$200,000, while his former attorney Rudy Giuliani’s bail was set at $150,000. Meanwhile, attorneys John Eastman, Kenneth Chesebro, Jenna Ellis and Sidney Powell each had bail set at $100,000. Bail for other co-defendants ranged from $10,000 to $75,000. Continued here

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Why CEOs and footballers attract different levels of outrage about high pay     The average pay of FTSE100 CEOs rose by 16% from £3.38 million in 2021 to £3.91 million in 2022, according to the latest figures from thinktank the High Pay Centre. In the same week this was reported, UK political figure Nigel Farage called outgoing NatWest boss Alison Rose’s £2.4 million payout “a sick joke”. She recently resigned for leaking private financial information about him to the BBC. On the other hand, senior NHS doctors are embarking on a second round of strikes in response to recent pay erosion and a “final” pay offer of 6% from the government. In the last two months, teachers have agreed to settle for 6.5%. Train drivers, nurses and university lecturers are also among a growing list of employees for whom proposed pay increases are failing to beat inflation. Continued here

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Who won the first US Republican presidential debate? An expert reviews the highlights     The reigning champion, and undisputed winner, from the first Republican debate of presidential hopefuls? Donald Trump. Even in his absence, he was the main spectacle. That much was predictable. Although many tried to dance around him, every candidate had to address the “elephant not in the room”. That put Trump centre-stage, in the limelight — exactly where the 2024 Republican favourite wanted to be. Continued here

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Setting the stage for a better understanding of complex brain disorders     We often compare the brain to a machine with wheels, cogs, and belts. In this analogy, when something breaks, the entire mechanism skips a beat or grinds to a halt. However, more often than not this isn’t what happens with our brains. Instead, they’re more like a theatre. Here, neurons are the musicians, actors, and dancers, and they improvise a performance that shapes our thoughts and lives.I’m an electronic and computer engineer at the DSS Lab of the National Technical University of Athens. In December 2019, Ioannis Stavropoulos, a neuroscientist at King’s College London, introduced me to his colleague Elissaios Karageorgiou of the Neurological Institute of Athens. They wanted to talk about an idea they had about neurology and, in a way, theatre, over coffee. Continued here

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Energy price cap: a targeted 'social tariff' must be part of a much wider set of reforms     The British energy regulator Ofgem has announced the energy price cap for the last quarter of 2023, including early winter. Gas and electricity should be slightly cheaper than last year, but they are still too expensive. The problem is the cap itself which, as I have written before, was never designed to keep energy affordable. It limits profits for suppliers but not bills for you or I. Continued here