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In Defense of a Good Cry, and Other Options for ‘Losing It’
As an urban anthropologist, Katrina Johnston-Zimmerman felt a duty to record her experiences in lockdown. After all, this was a once-in-a-century global pandemic. And so, for the past 49 nights or so, she has noted her mood at the end of the day. Mostly, her moods have been fairly positive. But then, last Sunday, her local farmer’s market was sold out of cut flowers — which she had wanted to brighten up her home. “It was the stupidest thing. I almost lost it there on the street,” she said. Ms. Johnston-Zimmerman, an adjunct professor at Drexel University, made it home, “but then I was baking bread, and I just completely broke down.
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There Are 3 Things We Have to Do to Get People Wearing Masks
APS Member/Author: Angela Duckworth Hong Kong has so far reported a grand total of four coronavirus-related deaths, while New York City has reported over 20,000. Here’s another striking comparison: Close to 99 percent of Hong Kong residents have been wearing masks, to prevent the wearer from spreading the virus, since early February. According to a mid-April Gallup poll, only a third of Americans say they always wear a mask or cloth face covering outside the home. Another third of us sometimes wear a mask in public, and a third never do.
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What Our Post-Pandemic Behavior Might Look Like
There was a time in the not-too-distant past when it wasn’t widely understood that germs could pass from person to person.Before the late 1800s, habits likesharing cups with strangers and spitting in public even amidst crowds weren’t considered unsanitary. Then a tuberculosis outbreak came, and our behavior changed — in some ways irrevocably and in some ways temporarily. What will coronavirus do to our societal norms and relationships?
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Scientists Pin Down a Link Between Happiness and 1 Daily Activity
Even under normal circumstances, it's tough to get motivated to bike across town or visit a museum when you're feeling low. But that's exactly what you should do, scientists say. Exploring the unknown has a powerful influence on mood, according to a study published Monday in the journal Nature Neuroscience. Researchers tracked the location and mood fluctuations of 122 people across New York City and Miami over three to four months. An analysis of movement patterns and reported emotions revealed an intuitive insight that had yet to be empirically demonstrated: Experiencing new and diverse experiences on a daily basis is linked to positive emotions.
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Will an A.I. Ever Become Sentient?
“Sentience” is a word with seriously heavy connotations that also tend to hold different meaning to different people and under differing circumstances. First, some definitions are in order: Intelligence: 1 a: the ability to learn or understand or to deal with new or trying situations. b: the ability to apply knowledge to manipulate one’s environment or to think abstractly as measured by objective criteria (as tests) 2: mental acuteness. (Merriam-Webster) Sentient: 1: responsive to or conscious of sense impressions: sentient beings. 2: aware 3: finely sensitive in perception or feeling (Merriam-Webster) ... Biological Intelligence ... Dr.
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Learning to Live With Fear
... Fear is often a lonely experience. Its intensity can isolate us and make us question ourselves—make us feel flawed, weak and foolish. But because of the pandemic, millions of people around the world are sharing the same fears. That’s a rare thing, and it offers us a reminder that fear isn’t always something to be hidden or quelled, but something to be acknowledged and addressed. In times like these, fear can be an asset. It’s what motivates us to identify a threat and take measures to counter it. What we need to do—always, but especially now—is understand how our fears function to help us survive.
