So Very Tired

Star Trek XII: So Very Tired

Just a personal note / vent. This isn't judgment or a request for anything.

I recently started listening to a podcast where two long-time vegetarians were talking with a celebrity. This famous person has been a vegetarian and an activist for a few years longer than me (the late 80s). And when the celebrity's activism came up, they talked as if they'd never heard of vegetarianism or animal rights and had just read Diet for a New America. "Environment! [Blah blah blah] Health! [Blah blah blah] Animals! [Vlah blah blah.] [Various bogus claims/exaggerations*.]"  

Once they got maybe 30 seconds into this litany - one this person must have given thousands of times - I felt So Very Tired. I just couldn't stand it. How could this person just continue to say the same thing over and over and over for decades and expect a different result?

Not saying this celebrity is stupid or wrong. (And maybe later in the podcast they actually discuss the fact that after decades of activism, the situation is far worse than ever. I don't know; I just couldn't take it anymore.) 

We should always look at the results of what we do, rather than just worry about "being right." There are some alternatives we could at least give a fair shot.

* Speaking of exaggerations and lies, I saw a new version of "animal ag is the biggest driver of climate change" last week. (Old version)  <sigh>

Sydney Photos + You can't change a mind

Sydney's own Amit Tewari (above), who quit his medical residency to help animals by following the evidence, asked us why he couldn't convince his friends or family to stop eating chickens. 

That's easy!

Logic and argument have no impact on the human brain. We want what we want because of our nature and nurture (genetics and programming). Then we accumulate "evidence" to justify what we already want. 

There are no exceptions to this rule. 

So we should stop trying to "be right" or "win an argument." It doesn't work and it doesn't help.

To actually maybe make a difference, we must fully understand, accept, and appreciate what the other person wants. And that they have no free will. But our ego gets in the way.

What I want is to show you a few pictures from the Sydney area; as always, click for larger:

That's gonna hurt come winter.

Sulphur-Crested Cockatoo.
Can live to be 100!

Swamp wallaby!
Totally unexpected. No one else around.

Water dragon!

The Buddha or The Dude

Duuuuuuude!

If one can accept and truly internalize emptiness and thus achieve enlightenment (full version; shorter) how would that person differ from a stoner? 

Not joking. 

Dealing with Stress from an Evolutionary Perspective (and travel bonus)

LA area.
Here is a pretty good quick overview of how to travel freely.

The brilliant and kind Robert Sapolsky points out that exercise is very often the best way to deal with stress. (Book.)

He notes that the stress response evolved to avoid being eaten. 

Stress is meant to prime our bodies to fight or flee, not to think more. Thus: "fighting or fleeing" (lifting weights, running, etc.) is a good way to deal with stress. 

A very smart (and tall) friend told me that going to a silent retreat made their mental health worse - being alone with their thoughts was not a good idea. Anne and I have a long list of people we know (or know of) who are big-time meditators yet are quite poorly adjusted. 

This is not meant to shit on meditation. But I think simply saying "meditate" or "be mindful" is worse than saying nothing. In my experience, a framework like Robert Wright's Why Buddhism Is True (or even just this) is vital for any meditative practice. 

More broadly, "smart" people tend to think [sic] that everything can be dealt with by thinking. And many of us (e.g., raised Catholic) tend to think [sic] poorly of "the body." Neither of these are accurate, and often lead to more suffering.

Pain and Suffering and Oceana 1

Taken shortly after the sneeze mentioned below.

I've written a lot about the distinction between pain and suffering (like here). Our recent points-powered #1 bucket-list trip Down Under provides another example.

At one point on the trip, I fractured a rib. It affected my sleep (not in a good way!), made it hard to get out of bed, etc. One time I sneezed and felt like I might pass out from the Owww. 

However, I did not suffer. I was incredibly happy nearly the whole trip (especially considering what was happening back here in Crazy Town). Every single day, I was far happier than a "normal" day with my "normal" pain. 

(But I don't recommend fracturing your rib. Also: this WaPo article claims that not only can the placebo effect work when the patient knows it's a placebo, but it can even work when the patient knows and thinks the placebo won't work!!!)

Now: 

More than any other type of post, readers say they like my picture posts. Yet I feel almost guilty about posting so many pictures of the adventures we've been able to take because of points and miles. I thought about just doing a link, but then I can't give any contextual notes. So I'm going to break this trip up by geographical area and try to be much more discerning in which ones I use. 

Here are pictures from the trip down, Melbourne, and our time on the Great Ocean Road with Vincent, one of three cool people we have known online and were able to meet in person on this trip! I quote Vincent in Losing My Religions, and he used to blog at The Animalist, where he wrote some excellent (and inflammatory to Vegans) pieces.

I'll leave the pictures small; you can always click to see them bigger.

The Arizona desert by the California border. Weird, no?

Free plant-based chicken (far right) and drink at Delta's LAX lounge.

Not a view of the earth you see normally.
Video. #Waterworld

Flying Foxes in the middle of Melbourne; see next

Melbourne definitely won for cool architecture. 

Roos! Video

"Dances with snakes"

Koala! For mah sistah....

More on The End of Veganism

As a follow-up to this (originally a chapter in Losing) and this, researcher Vasco Grilo has published Cost-effectiveness of Veganuary and School Plates at the Effective Altruism Forum.

Personally, I am a big fan of Veganuary's Wendy Matthews, with whom I used to work closely and who wrote this (flattery will get you everywhere with me when it comes to the book). I also knew Veganuary's co-founder Matthew Glover. More importantly, Veganuary's funder is why One Step for Animals has existed for over a decade and has reached many millions of people with the message "Please don't eat chickens." 

No One Believes in God

 
A more accurate title would be "Almost no one really believes in god."

I've experienced moments of extraordinary ecstasy. If I truly believed that when I died I would feel like that all the time, I would look forward to death. Heck, I would pretty actively yearn for death! And while I would be sad when someone important to me died, that would be offset by my joy for them. 

God aside, I would jump at the chance to be in Nozick's Experience Machine, assuming Anne would be able to be in an experience machine too.

Just sayin'

What do they know–all these scholars, all these philosophers, all the leaders of the world – about such as you? They have convinced themselves that man, the worst transgressor of all the species, is the crown of creation. All other creatures were created merely to provide him with food, pelts, to be tormented, exterminated. 

In relation to them, all people are Nazis; for the animals it is an eternal Treblinka.

–Isaac Bashevis Singer, The Letter Writer

Also:

Not that I'd rather be a wild animal.

 

Wk'end Reading: The Mind Is Fragile (long edition)

The Delirious, Violent, Impossible True Story of the Zizians

A truly crazy story. Not happy or encouraging but illustrative. Yikes.

When I first got involved with the Animal Rights Community of Greater Cincinnati in the late 1980s, it became apparent that animal rights / veganism attracted more than its share of people with some form of mental instability. The same is true for effective altruism. (And probably every "out there" philosophy / religion / dogma.)

Tyler Cowen on AI take-off

Candycorn!
(But seriously - a weird plant)

Why I think AI take-off is relatively slow

Not to be the cranky old man, but if AI is around, how come so little really works smoothly? I'm not upset - it doesn't really matter to me so much. 

Making Things Better Better

I still can't believe everything we know about these tiny lights in the sky.

No excerpts - entire thing is worth a skim.

Sunday Funnies: AI ROTFL

I asked Google's AI about punctuation and degrees. It told me the below. Holy chicken! 

When listing degrees on a resume, use periods in abbreviations like B.A., M.A., and Ph.D., but not in abbreviations like BA, MA, and PhD. 

Here's a more detailed explanation:

• Periods are used for abbreviations of two letters: B.A., M.A., J.D., M.S. 
• Periods are not used for abbreviations of three letters: BA, MA, PhD 

😆

But not quite as funny as this picture by Anne:

Weekend Reading: Royalty and Self-Help

True happiness

We Live Like Royalty and Don’t Know It 

Of course, evolution has programmed us to take everything good for granted. Content organisms were out of the gene pool. [ed]

Why self-help books are terrible and wonderful

...the best experimental research about what makes you happier and what doesn’t:

Our review … points to the value of expressing gratitude, being more sociable, acting happy, and spending money on others. In contrast, we found surprisingly little support for many commonly recommended strategies for promoting happiness, including practicing meditation, doing random acts of kindness, or engaging in volunteer work. Most happiness research has focused on practices that individuals can add to their lives, but some recent studies provide hints that removing some of our daily habits could also improve happiness; specifically, individuals may benefit from giving up social media use for an extended period or buying themselves out of unpleasant daily tasks.

When was America great?

Seriously: 

Music Monday: Only for Tears for Fears fans (sorry)

You might want to check out this post if you know and like the songs Everybody Wants to Rule the World (performance on Colbert), Head Over Heels, Sowing the Seeds of Love, etc.  

We are flying home today.